Arrest warrant issued for suspect in murder of Yale student

POLICE investigating the fatal shooting of a Yale University student have officially named a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a murder suspect, intensifying a nationwide manhunt.

The New Haven Police Department said in a Facebook post on Saturday that it had secured an arrest warrant charging Qinxuan Pan with murder, and that it would provide additional information on Monday. Pan remained at large, it said.

Kevin Jiang, a 26-year-old graduate student at the Yale School of the Environment, was shot and killed outside his car on Feb. 6, rattling the prestigious Ivy League school's campus, located about 80 miles (129 km) northeast of New York City.

Police had previously identified Pan, 29, as a "person of interest" and warned he could be armed and dangerous. He was enrolled in the electrical engineering and computer science department at MIT, itself an elite school not far from the suspect's last known address in Malden, Massachusetts.

The U.S. Marshals, which is assisting with the hunt for Pan, said on Feb. 11 that he was last seen that day in Brookhaven or Duluth, Georgia driving with family members.

Police have not disclosed a suspected motive in the killing.

The murder took place near the apartment of Jiang's fiancee, Zion Perry, also a Yale graduate student, the New Haven Independent reported on Feb. 11.

Perry and Pan had crossed paths at MIT, where she earned her undergraduate degree, according to the newspaper, which published a photo of the two at a social gathering in March 2020. There is no evidence to suggest Perry and Pan had a romantic relationship, the Independent said.

Perry did not immediately respond to an interview request.

A spokesman for the New Haven police declined to provide additional information, while the U.S. Marshals Service did not respond to a request for comment.