Mystery after Yale graduate student fatally shot
Investigators say Kevin Jiang may have been targeted; Eric Shawn has the latest on 'America Reports'
The fiancée of the Connecticut graduate student who was gunned down in February said she had suspected that the accused killer "was interested in her" when they attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) together, according to recently released police papers.
Kevin Jiang, 26, had gunshot wounds to his head, chest and extremities when he was found on Feb. 6 in New Haven, according to an arrest warrant filed for Qinxuan Pan, the man charged with Jian's murder. Pan was arrested in Alabama last month.
After his arrest, a judge set Pan's il at $20 million. His attorney, William Gerace, has applied for the amount to be reduced. Asked for comment about the court documents, Gerace told The Associated Press: "Mr. Pan is presumed innocent."
YALE GRAD STUDENT KEVIN JIANG MURDER: NABBED FUGITIVE QINXUAN PAN TO SEEK $20M BAIL REDUCTION
Jiang, a Yale University graduate student and U.S. Army veteran, had spent the February day fishing with his fiancée, Zion Perry. Jiang had just left her New Haven apartment when he was gunned down. Perry told authorities that she heard gunshots but didn't think of Jiang because she assumed he had already left the area.
In the 96 pages of police documents, authorities said audio and video surveillance records showed Jiang getting out of his car after what sounded like a collision and approaching a vehicle behind him. The sound of gunshots can then be heard, the documents state.
Qinxuan Pan, the fugitive sought in the killing of a Yale graduate student in Connecticut in February, has been taken into custody in Alabama, U.S. Marshals announced Friday.
Police encountered Pan a short time later in nearby North Haven, where they responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle and discovered a 2015 GMC Terrain. Responding officers described how the vehicle, which was being driven by Pan, had gotten "stuck on the railroad tracks."
Pan told them the car was a rental but couldn't produce any documentation to prove it. Police determined the vehicle had been reported lost or stolen and had it towed, to be subsequently seized, the documents state. The tow truck driver then took Pan to a nearby Best Western motel.
But police at the time let Pan go because they were initially told by a New Haven dispatcher that the shooting suspect was Black – an error that was not corrected until more than an hour after officers in North Haven met Pan, according to the New Haven Independent.
Authorities said Pan disappeared after being taken to the motel, which police discovered when they went to find him the next day. They had gone looking for him after workers at a restaurant next door reported finding a bag with a gun, ammunition, license plates and a briefcase outside. One of the officers recognized the bags as having been in Pan's car the day before.
An analysis by authorities determined that bullet casings found near Jiang's body were not connected to the gun recovered by restaurant workers.
Investigators discovered that Pan and Perry were connected on social media, and had met while at MIT.
QINXUAN PAN, SUSPECT IN YALE STUDENT KEVIN JIANG'S MURDER, IS ARRESTED
Perry told authorities she met Pan through Christian group events in 2019 when she was an undergraduate student and he was in graduate school, according to the documents.
"They talked at those events and she invited him to other events to welcome him," police papers state. "They never had a romantic relationship and they were just friends."
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The documents added: "She did get a feeling that he was interested in her during that time."
The documents did not outline how authorities found Pan in Alabama, where prosecutors said he had rented an apartment under a false name and was found with $19,000 in cash, his father’s passport and several cellphones.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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