Murder of Kevin Jiang

Kevin Jiang, a 26-year-old graduate student at Yale University, was shot and killed in New Haven, Connecticut, on February 6, 2021. Qinxuan Pan was named a suspect days later and arrested after a four-month search; in April 2024 he was sentenced to 35 years in prison. The case drew wide coverage and was later featured in a January 2025 episode of 48 Hours.

On the evening of February 6, 2021, Jiang left his fiancée's apartment in the East Rock neighborhood of New Haven. Around 8:30 p.m., his car was struck from behind by a black SUV driven by Pan. The collision was minor, and after the SUV backed up, Jiang got out to check on the other driver. When he reached the driver's side he was shot twice; Pan then got out and fired six more shots as Jiang lay on the ground. Jiang died of multiple gunshot wounds and emergency responders could not revive him. Investigators first treated the shooting as a random crime before coming to suspect a personal motive.

About 30 minutes later, Pan drove into a scrap yard and got stuck on railroad tracks; local officers, not yet aware a killing had occurred, arranged a tow rather than detaining him and had him driven to a hotel in North Haven, where he discarded a handgun and ammunition outside a nearby restaurant. The items were linked to him the next day, though he had left without using the paid room. Pan was named a suspect on February 10, and a warrant was issued on February 26; police called him armed and dangerous, and a reward grew to $10,000. DNA on the ammunition and gun case, blood on clothing found in the SUV, and a stolen license plate tied Pan to the scene, though the recovered pistol was not the murder weapon, which was never found, and no relationship between Jiang and Pan was established.

Pan evaded capture for months: days after the killing he asked his parents to meet him in Connecticut with cash, then drove their car to Atlanta before abandoning it and continuing on foot; his parents were questioned but not charged. In April 2021, Interpol issued a Red Notice referencing murder and larceny charges. Pan was apprehended on May 14, 2021, in Montgomery, Alabama, living under a false name with about $19,000 in cash, and was held on $20 million bail as a flight risk.

Investigators linked Pan to four unsolved drive-by shootings at nearby homes between December 2020 and the morning of the murder, none of which caused injury; the same test-drive vehicle from a Massachusetts dealership was used in the shootings and the killing, apparently to make the murder look random. No motive was disclosed by prosecutors.

Jiang was born in Iowa City, Iowa, in 1994 and was raised largely by his mother in Chicago. He attended North Seattle College and the University of Washington, graduating magna cum laude in 2016, and served in the U.S. Army National Guard, reaching second lieutenant. At the time of his death he was pursuing a master's degree in environmental science at Yale, volunteered at a homeless shelter, and had become engaged three weeks earlier.

Pan was charged federally with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution and interstate theft of a vehicle, and pandemic-related delays pushed proceedings into 2022; he pleaded not guilty in December 2022 after a judge found probable cause. On February 27, 2024, Pan pleaded guilty under a plea agreement exposing him to up to 35 years in prison without parole, and on April 23, 2024, he was sentenced to 35 years.