By Wang Zhaoyu
In 2021, Kevin Jiang, a 26-year-old Chinese-American graduate student at Yale University, tragically lost his life in a shooting incident. Three years later, the suspect in the case, former Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Chinese doctoral student Qinxuan Pan, has recently admitted to the murder charges for the first time in court.
Reportedly, 32-year-old Qinxuan Pan could face up to 35 years in prison.
Photo of Pan Qinxuan after Arrest. Source: New Haven Police Department
Shooting Incident Three Years Ago
The prosecutor of New Haven, USA, recounted that on February 6, 2021, Pan Qinxuan fired multiple shots at Jiang Kaiwen on a local street, hitting him in the head, chest, and limbs, causing him to collapse beside a car. Pan Qinxuan then fled the scene.
The incident was captured by surveillance cameras. According to the police, a neighbor witnessed the shooting, and several people saw the assailant driving away. One neighbor stated they "heard at least 7 gunshots."
For three months after the shooting, Pan Qinxuan evaded police pursuit. When he was apprehended on May 14, 2021, in Alabama, USA, he was using a false name and had $19,000 in cash, a passport, and several cellphones.
For over two years after his arrest, Pan Qinxuan maintained his innocence.
Finally, on February 29, Pan Qinxuan admitted in court for the first time that he had killed Jiang Kaiwen. According to court records, Pan Qinxuan is scheduled to be sentenced on April 25.
Pan Qinxuan's lawyer, William Gerace, stated that if Pan Qinxuan had not confessed, he could have faced up to 60 years in prison upon conviction. Therefore, he "cautiously accepted this reasonable plea agreement."
The prosecutor's statement did not mention the motive for the murder, but court documents indicate that Pan Qinxuan knew Jiang Kaiwen's fiancée, Zion Perry.
The police did not disclose whether Pan Qinxuan and Jiang Kaiwen had a relationship. However, MIT confirmed that Pan Qinxuan had been a graduate student at the university since 2014, while Jiang Kaiwen's fiancée, Perry, graduated from MIT in 2020.
The Background of the Case
It is reported that the victim, Jiang Kaiwen, was a graduate student at the Yale School of the Environment, grew up in Chicago, USA, and was a military veteran.
Jiang Kaiwen once wrote in his social media profile, "Life is a gift for which I am very grateful." Yale University President Peter Salovey described Jiang Kaiwen as "an exceptionally outstanding young man."
A week before the incident, 26-year-old Jiang Kaiwen had just successfully proposed to his girlfriend Perry and announced their engagement on social media. He was looking forward to the future. On February 14, a week after the incident, he would have celebrated his 27th birthday.
Jiang Kaiwen celebrated his successful proposal on social media.
Pan Qinxuan, at the time of the incident, was a doctoral student at MIT, affiliated with the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Born in Shanghai in 1991, he moved to the United States in 2006 to attend high school.
In a 96-page arrest warrant, local police revealed more details:
As early as 2019, Pan Qinxuan, a doctoral student at MIT, met Perry, an undergraduate student at the same school. The two became friends and stayed in touch through social media.
Perry told the police that she and Pan Qinxuan never had a romantic or sexual relationship, just friends. However, during that time, she did feel that Pan Qinxuan was "interested" in her.
In 2021, Perry posted on social media to celebrate her engagement to Jiang Kaiwen on January 30. By then, Perry was a doctoral student in biochemistry and physics at Yale University.
On the day of the incident, Jiang Kaiwen and Perry spent the whole day together, going ice fishing and cooking dinner at Perry's apartment.
Meanwhile, Pan Qinxuan stole a dark blue SUV from a car dealership and drove to the neighborhood where Perry lived, close to the Yale University campus.
Around 8 p.m. that evening, Jiang Kaiwen left Perry's apartment and got into his Toyota Prius. Shortly after driving off, he was rammed by Pan Qinxuan's SUV. After Jiang Kaiwen got out of the car, Pan Qinxuan fired several shots at him.
Escape and pursuit:
After the incident, Pan Qinxuan fled the scene by car, which was also confirmed by eyewitnesses.
Thirty minutes later, police in North Haven received a call reporting that a driver's SUV was stuck on the railroad tracks.
When the police arrived, they found Pan Qinxuan sitting in the driver's seat, wearing a gray knit hat with a "MetroPCS" logo.
Pan Qinxuan told the police that he got lost while looking for the highway back to Massachusetts. At that time, the police did not know that the SUV he was driving was stolen.
The police did not arrest Pan Qinxuan but arranged for a tow truck to remove the SUV from the tracks and took Pan Qinxuan to a nearby motel.
Ninety minutes later, the New Haven Police Department issued an alert to look for a dark-colored SUV.
The next morning, it was discovered that Pan Qinxuan had escaped from the motel. A worker called the police to report finding a bag near a dumpster at a nearby fast-food restaurant. The bag contained a Ruger semi-automatic pistol, 7 magazines, several boxes of ammunition, and a gray knit hat with a "MetroPCS" logo.
On February 26, 2021, the New Haven police applied for an arrest warrant for Pan Qinxuan.
Subsequently, a multi-state manhunt ensued. Eventually, Pan Qinxuan was arrested in Alabama, where he had rented an apartment under a false name.
According to the New Haven Independent, Pan Qinxuan's escape lasted a considerable amount of time, and some residents in the New Haven area criticized the police for their handling of the case. Some residents argued that the fact that Pan Qinxuan's SUV was found stuck on the railroad tracks should have prompted the police to ask more questions.
The police statement, however, maintained that all officers involved in the investigation had acted diligently.
(All times mentioned in the article are local time in North America)
