A Yale grad student is shot to death in what investigators feared was a perfect murder

On Feb. 6, 2021, Kevin Jiang, a 26-year-old Yale graduate pupil and former Military Nationwide Guardsman, spent the day with Zion Perry, his fiancée, who was additionally a graduate pupil there. The couple went mountain climbing and ice fishing, adopted by dinner at her house within the prosperous East Rock part of New Haven. Police say that at round 8:30 p.m. Jiang left her residence and headed off in his Prius to his home, the place he lived together with his mom.

He barely made it two blocks earlier than his automotive was struck from behind by a darkish SUV in what gave the impression to be a minor fender bender. Police consider he acquired out of his automotive, prone to examine on how the opposite driver was and change data. As a substitute, the opposite motorist shot Jiang eight times — with a number of bullets fired so near his head that the exploding gunpowder left burn marks on his face.

David Zaweski, the lead murder detective in Jiang’s homicide, talked with “48 Hours” correspondent Anne-Marie Inexperienced for this week’s all-new story, “The Ivy League Murder,” airing Saturday, Jan. 25 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.

Zaweski stated that one witness advised investigators she heard the minor fender bender, regarded out a window, heard gunshots and noticed muzzle flashes from a weapon. And one other witness added that she not solely heard the gunshots, however she noticed the shooter – dressed all in black – standing over his fallen sufferer, persevering with to fireside bullets into him after he was down. Detectives would later get better a chilling house surveillance video that just about captured Kevin’s closing moments alive, confirming the witness’ accounts.

However deepening the thriller was the truth that the eight spent shell casings mendacity close to Jiang had been .45 caliber bullets — and so they had been much like .45 caliber shell casings discovered on the scene of 4 current shootings within the space.

In line with police, a gunman had fired .45 caliber bullets into 4 properties over the past a number of months. In these instances, nobody had been harm. Investigators interviewed the owners however had been unable to search out any connection between them.

At first look, Jiang’s homicide had all of the earmarks of a violent case of street rage. However Zaweski and his colleague Steven Cunningham rapidly started to marvel if there was extra.

“It appears just a little bit extra private,” Zaweski advised Inexperienced. “When you will have somebody laying on the bottom and never transferring, what would trigger somebody to proceed firing?”

Cunningham questioned the automotive accident. “Was it consider to get him out of the car? Presumably one thing that was deliberate?” he stated.

“And if he was particularly focused,” Zaweski continued, “what might have occurred in his life to drive somebody to do that?

It was a logical investigative avenue to pursue, however after breaking the tragic information to Jiang’s mom and his fiancée, investigators say the portrait that emerged of Kevin was that of a gifted younger man who could not have had an enemy on the planet. He was dwelling with, and caring for, his mom, whom he introduced from Seattle to reside with him. He volunteered to work with the homeless, was deeply non secular, and was a former lieutenant within the U.S. Military Nationwide Guard. Only a week earlier he had proposed to Perry, which she posted on Fb, just about on the anniversary of their assembly at a Christian retreat.

Pastor Gregory Hendrickson summed up the younger newly engaged couple for Inexperienced. “They clearly shared lots in widespread,” he started. “They each liked nature. Zion was a scientist finding out molecular biophysics and biochemistry… he was within the Faculty of the Setting. They’re each good and hardworking college students,” he stated, “and but they did not really feel like their accomplishments had been what outlined them on the deepest degree.”

Zaweski and Cunningham knew they confronted a frightening investigation. Jiang’s homicide may have been one other random taking pictures by the mysterious .45 caliber gunman. Whoever the shooter was, he was nonetheless on the free.

“The suspect was on the market,” Zaweski stated. “He wasn’t recognized. We did not know the place he went … and we did not know what he could be doing subsequent.”

With few results in pursue and a imprecise picture of a darkish SUV from surveillance footage on the scene, they knew they doubtless would wish a break. And so they acquired one the next day once they acquired an pressing name from Sgt. Jeffrey Mills of the close by North Haven police. He supplied them with startling details about two completely different 911 calls.

The primary one occurred a few half hour after Jiang’s homicide. A motorist had gotten caught on a desolate snow-covered railroad observe exterior a scrap metallic yard he had by accident pushed into, he stated, whereas in search of a close-by freeway entrance. The motorist, Qinxuan Pan, was from Malden, Massachusetts. His report was clear, and he was calm with an excuse that Mills had heard earlier than from others who acquired misplaced close to that scrap yard. So, he helped Pan get a tow and a close-by resort room. On the time, Mills was unaware that there had been a homicide in New Haven.

However about 15 hours later, at 11 a.m. on Feb. 7, Mills responded to a different 911 name at an Arby’s, the place staff had discovered a bag containing a gun and field of .45 caliber bullets. The Arby’s was proper subsequent door to the Greatest Western resort the place Pan had been taken. And by then he knew Kevin Jiang had been murdered, by somebody driving a darkish SUV much like Pan’s. That is when he reached out to New Haven murder.

It turned out Pan had checked into the resort however by no means stayed there. And when Zaweski despatched detectives to Malden, the place Pan went to Massachusetts Institute of Expertise (MIT) and lived together with his dad and mom –no one was house.

Zaweski turned to his laptop trying to find Pan, hoping to discover a connection to Jiang. “We’ll use Fb as a instrument to attempt to get a background on a person, who they’re mates with,” Zaweski defined. However there gave the impression to be no reference to Jiang.

“And so, you are happening the record of names,” Inexperienced says, “Nothing, nothing, nothing, and then you definately’re like, ‘whoa.'”

“There’s our connection,” Zaweski replies. That connection was Zion Perry, who was listed as a buddy of Pan. She and Pan had met one another at a Christian group when Perry was an undergraduate at MIT. And though Perry was barely an acquaintance of Pan and hadn’t communicated with him since she left MIT and moved to New Haven to attend Yale, the murder detectives felt that they had greater than a break. They’d a possible suspect who was lacking from his house. And a potential motive: an obsession with Perry.

“It did appear to be there was a secret obsession of Pan’s happening behind the scenes that Kevin wasn’t conscious of, and that Zion wasn’t conscious of,” Zaweski stated. In spite of everything, Jiang’s homicide occurred only one week after Perry posted their engagement on Fb, together with earlier images of them courting.

Investigators consider Pan was additionally liable for the 4 .45 caliber shootings, and that the shootings had been a part of a premeditated plan. They theorized that these shootings had been accomplished to mislead them when Jiang was finally killed, to make them suppose his demise had been simply one other random incident.

“He deliberate it, Cunningham stated. “And he knew we would be taking a look at these different issues.”

“This wasn’t a random incident on the market,” Zaweski added. “He was focused.”

Now, their murder investigation, and the huge manhunt for his or her good, tech-savvy MIT fugitive took off. U.S. Marshals joined the case and realized that Pan’s household had entry to hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in belongings. Pan was lacking, and so they anxious he is perhaps making an attempt to flee the nation. The strain was on.

“This turned so excessive profile so quick,” U.S. Marshal Joe Galvan advised “48 Hours.” “It was simply heightened.”

The Marshals galvanized their huge sources to trace down Pan. They observed Pan’s dad and mom had withdrawn giant sums of money, and that that they had taken an extended journey south with their son proper after the homicide. When the dad and mom had been stopped in Georgia, they had been within the automotive, however their son was gone. They stated he’d merely gotten out of the automotive and walked away, and so they did not know the place he’d gone. Investigators had been skeptical.

“They might go to the ends of the earth to assist assist and conceal him,” stated Matthew Duffy, a supervisor of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Activity Drive in Connecticut. The Marshals targeted in on the dad and mom as their approach to discover Pan. They knew discovering him would take endurance as they utilized all their surveillance strategies to trace the household.

Weeks glided by, however finally, their endurance paid off. Pan’s mom lastly made a mistake that may lead the Marshals straight to her son. She made a telephone name from a resort utilizing a clerk’s telephone. Investigators spoke to the clerk and had been in a position to observe that decision, main them to Pan’s location at a boarding home in Alabama.

“They went there with a small military,” Duffy stated. “Round 20 guys … he simply got here out and stated, ‘I am who you are in search of.'”

On the time of his arrest, Pan had on him roughly $20,000 in money, a number of communication gadgets, and his father’s passport. He was charged with Jiang’s homicide, accepted a plea deal, and was sentenced in April 2024 to serve 35 years in jail.

Pan’s dad and mom had been by no means charged with something. “48 Hours” reached out to the Pans, however they didn’t reply to our request for remark.

Investigators consider that had Pan not gotten caught on the prepare tracks on that fateful February night time, Jiang’s homicide might by no means have been solved.

“Might he have gotten away with homicide?” Inexperienced requested Zaweski.

“He very properly might have,” Zaweski replied. “If he had not gotten caught up on these tracks … it will’ve been very troublesome.”

Although investigators, mates, and household had been relieved that Pan had been caught and delivered to justice, Jiang’s mom spoke at Pan’s sentencing to say she felt that 35 years was too quick a sentence for the person who’d killed her solely son.

Perry agreed. “I wished to handle Pan particularly,” she stated on the sentencing. “Though your sentence is much lower than you deserve … there’s additionally mercy. Could God have mercy on you. And will he have mercy on all of us.”

Even 4 years after Jiang’s demise, mates marvel what Kevin, a person of deep religion, might need thought of his killer.

“Do you suppose Kevin would’ve forgiven Pan?” Inexperienced requested Jamila Ayeh and Nasya Hubbard, who served with Jiang within the army.

“Sure, I do,” stated Hubbard. Added Ayeh, “For sure.”