On the evening of February 6, 2021, a minor traffic collision in New Haven’s East Rock neighborhood ended in gunfire and the death of 26-year-old Yale graduate student Kevin Jiang. What initially appeared to be a possible road-rage shooting quickly became the focus of a wider investigation that linked Jiang’s killing to a string of earlier .45-caliber shootings and to a suspect with ties to MIT.
The killing
At about 8:30 p.m., residents reported shots in the street. Detectives found Jiang lying by his Prius, which showed minor rear damage and had its hazard lights on. Surveillance video and witness accounts described a dark-colored SUV pulling up behind Jiang’s car, then reversing. Jiang exited his vehicle to confront the other driver; video captured two shots, a scream, then six more shots as someone stood over the downed man. Witnesses recalled an all-black-clad figure firing and a dark SUV fleeing the scene.
A broader pattern
Investigators noticed details that connected the homicide to several earlier incidents: over a period of months, police had recovered .45-caliber shell casings at four shootings in the area. In at least two of those earlier events, witnesses reported seeing a dark SUV. In two separate episodes, rounds had been fired into occupied family homes; no one was hurt, but the same caliber casings were recovered. The matching casings suggested a single weapon or shooter was involved across incidents, though Jiang’s death was the only fatality.
Kevin Jiang
Jiang was a 26-year-old student at the Yale School of the Environment from Chicago. A member of the Army National Guard and deeply religious, he had recently purchased a house and invited his mother, Linda Liu, to live with him. Friends described him as warm and genuine; he had posted about an engagement to his girlfriend, Zion Perry, just a week before he was killed.
The investigation
Detectives David Zaweski and Steven Cunningham led the scene work, gathering shell casings and canvassing for witnesses. Surveillance video proved crucial, corroborating witness accounts of the SUV, the collision, and the shooting. With the casings tying Jiang’s murder to the earlier .45-caliber incidents, detectives widened their search for the dark SUV and a suspect.
A tip and a break
Fifteen hours after the shooting, police in North Haven responded to a call about a vehicle stuck on snow-covered railroad tracks at a scrap yard. Officers found a black minivan/SUV and the driver, 29-year-old Qinxuan Pan, who told them he had taken a wrong turn. Items observed in the vehicle included a yellow jacket, a blue bag and a briefcase. Pan’s driver’s license and background check were clean; at the time, the officer on scene had not learned of the New Haven homicide.
That night and the next morning, more evidence surfaced. Employees at a nearby Arby’s discovered bags on the grass containing a .45-caliber handgun and ammunition; one bag matched bags seen in Pan’s vehicle the night before. When detectives connected the Arby’s find to the New Haven shooting and the recovered .45-caliber casings, Sergeant Jeffrey Mills alerted New Haven homicide detectives. Although the gun found at the Arby’s was not ultimately identified as the murder weapon, it and the bags were linked to Pan.
Linking Pan
Detectives traced Pan to Malden, Massachusetts, where he lived with his parents and was a graduate student in computer science and artificial intelligence at MIT. They found Pan used three active phones and had arranged multiple test drives at car dealerships in the months before the shootings. Those scheduled test drives aligned with dates of the .45-caliber incidents in New Haven, suggesting the drives were used to position vehicles and mislead investigators. Investigators also found social connections: Zion Perry, Jiang’s girlfriend and a former MIT student, was among Pan’s Facebook contacts. While Pan and Jiang had no direct relationship, detectives came to believe Pan had developed an obsession with Perry and may have staged earlier shootings to mask a targeted attack on Jiang.
Flight and capture
After the murder, Pan called his parents. They began withdrawing cash and traveling south. The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force joined the hunt. Investigators tracked phone pings and bank withdrawals and noted GPS devices on vehicles tied to Pan had been disabled. Pan’s parents used rental cars and bought electronics, drawing surveillance interest from Marshals. Their movements eventually led to a boarding house near Alabama State University, where investigators found and arrested Pan; he had cash, multiple SIM cards and his father’s passport.
Forensic evidence and prosecution
Although authorities never recovered the exact murder weapon, forensic and physical evidence tied Pan to the crime: license plate imprint matches linked the rear-bumper imprint on Jiang’s Prius to the plate on the SUV Pan used that night; DNA evidence connected Pan to a gun and ammunition found near the Arby’s; and Jiang’s blood was found on Pan’s hat and on the gearshift of the SUV Pan was driving the night of the killing. The .45-caliber casings from several New Haven shootings matched one another and linked those incidents to the homicide. Prosecutors said the earlier shootings and the test drives were part of a plan to mislead investigators and obscure a targeted attack.
Plea and sentence
On February 29, 2024, Pan pleaded guilty to Jiang’s murder as part of a plea agreement and received a 35-year sentence without parole. At sentencing, family and friends described their grief; Jiang’s mother said the term felt inadequate. Pan did not publicly explain his motive. Zion Perry addressed him in court, speaking of mercy and sorrow.
Aftermath
Jiang was remembered as a devoted son, caring partner and community member who served in the Army National Guard and studied at Yale. He was buried with military honors shortly before his 27th birthday. Investigators noted that chance events—a vehicle stuck on railroad tracks and an Arby’s employee finding bags with a handgun—were pivotal to solving the case. The conviction brought accountability for a violent episode that began with a fender bender and ended in a fatal shooting, and closed a frightening chapter for New Haven residents.