A Yale Student Is Killed and An M.I.T. Student Is Wanted for Questioning.

Quote from New York Times

Before he was killed on Saturday night, Kevin Jiang was on the cusp of momentous life changes. After serving in the military and spending time as a consultant, he was on track to finish a graduate program at Yale. He had just proposed to his fiancée a week earlier, and he was days from his 27th birthday, on Valentine’s Day.

But on Saturday night, Mr. Jiang was gunned down near his car in New Haven, Conn., in a gruesome death that has shaken a city where violence has been on the rise.

The killing became all the more shocking on Wednesday, when the New Haven police said they were seeking a man for questioning whom they considered “armed and dangerous.” That man, Qinxuan Pan, is a graduate student at M.I.T. — the same university from which Mr. Jiang’s fiancée graduated last year.

The New Haven police would not provide any details about possible connections between Mr. Pan, Mr. Jiang and Zion Perry, the fiancée, citing the ongoing investigation. But Chief Otoniel Reyes said that the police believed Mr. Pan had been “in the area” of Mr. Jiang’s killing at the time of his death.

“We’re exploring absolutely every angle, and whether or not that it is a factor in this investigation is something we can’t disclose at this time,” Chief Reyes said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Mr. Pan, 29, could not be reached for comment. On Thursday night, the U.S. Marshals Service, which has joined the investigation, said that he was spotted in Georgia early Thursday morning, driving with family in the Atlanta suburbs.

He had been charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution and interstate theft of a vehicle, charges the Marshals Service said were related to the killing of Mr. Jiang.

Mr. Jiang’s death came as New Haven has been grappling with a surge in violent crime. His killing marked the sixth homicide in New Haven, a city of about 130,000, this year. At this time in 2020, there had been none.

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