The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Warrant for murder signals intensifying case in Yale killing
The fact that police have obtained an arrest warrant in the fatal shooting of Kevin Jiang “doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve found something new,” according to one criminal justice expert, but it does signify an intensifying case against MIT graduate student Qinxuan Pan, who has now been charged with Jiang’s murder.
“This is a command from the court that an arrest be made,” said John DeCarlo, director of the master’s program in criminal justice at the University of New Haven. “He becomes a wanted person at this point.”
Pan had previously been called a “person of interest” in Jiang’s death. DeCarlo said that the murder charge means a judge agreed the evidence was strong enough to warrant an arrest.
“What it means is that the court has reviewed the work and all of the facts that have been presented in the affidavit and they have found that probable cause exists for an arrest to be made in the case,” he said.
New Haven police on Saturday noted they have an arrest warrant charging Pan with murder. The department said it would release additional information on the case Monday.
U.S. Marshal Matthew Duffy said Friday that the 29-year-old Pan is still at large and is believed to be in Georgia. Officials believe Pan fled to Georgia after fatally shooting Jiang.
When asked if the murder charge suggested that an arrest was imminent, Duffy said that while that is the hope, the last confirmed sighting of Pan was weeks ago.
The marshal’s office is offering a reward of $10,000 for information leading to Pan’s arrest. Duffy said the murder charge carries a $5 million bond when and if Pan is apprehended.
Jiang, a 26-year-old graduate student in Yale’s School of the Environment, was found dead on Lawrence Street near the intersection of Nash Street around 8:30 p.m. Feb. 6.
He was engaged to marry Zion Perry, and photos have emerged online that appear to show Perry and Pan together at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology dance in March of last year.
New Haven police said they have not ruled out the possibility of a prior relationship between Perry and Pan, hinting at a possible motive.
Police said they believe Pan stole an SUV from a dealership in Mansfield, Mass. and changed the plates before coming to Connecticut.
Pan is reportedly 6 feet tall, weighing 170 pounds with short, black hair. Police said he “could possibly be staying with friends or family in the Duluth or Brookhaven areas of Georgia.”
A family member of Pan’s told police that he had been “acting strange” in the days before the killing, Duffy said, and that a family member “could not really describe it.”
“We don’t know his state of mind,” Duffy said of Pan.