February 6, 2021 Jiang KaiwenThe 26-year-old Yale graduate student and former Army National Guard soldier spent the day with his fiancée, Zion Perry, also a Yale graduate student. The couple went hiking and ice fishing, then had dinner at her home in New Haven’s affluent East Rock neighborhood. Police said Jiang left her apartment around 8:30 p.m. and drove his Prius to the home where he lived with his mother.
Kevin Jiang, a 26-year-old Yale graduate student and Army veteran, was a man of faith who volunteered with the homeless, according to his friends. / Photo credit: Kevin Jiang/Instagram
He had only made it two blocks when his car was hit from behind by a black SUV, causing a slight fender bender. Police believe he got out of the car, possibly to check on the other driver and exchange information. Instead, another motorist Fired eight shots at Chiang Kai-shek ——Several bullets were fired very close to his head, and the explosive gunpowder left burn marks on his face.
David Zaweski, the lead homicide detective on the Jiang murder case, spoke to 48 Hours reporter Anne-Marie Green for “Ivy League Murders.” The encore portion of the broadcast is now streaming on Paramount+.
Zaveski said a witness told investigators she heard a slight fender bender, looked out the window, heard gunshots and saw the muzzle flash of the weapon. Another witness added that not only did she hear gunshots, but she also saw the gunman – dressed in black – standing over the fallen victim and continuing to shoot him after he fell to the ground. Detectives later found a chilling home surveillance video that captured nearly Kevin’s final moments alive, corroborating the eyewitness account.
But the deeper mystery is that the eight spent shell casings near Jiang were .45-caliber bullets that were similar to .45-caliber shell casings found at the scenes of four recent shootings in the area.
According to police, a gunman fired .45-caliber bullets into four homes over the past few months. In these cases, no one was injured. Investigators interviewed the homeowners but were unable to find any connection between them.
At first glance, Jiang Zemin’s murder has all the hallmarks of a violent case of road rage. But Zawski and his colleague Steven Cunningham soon began to wonder if there was more.
“It seemed more personal,” Zawski told Green. “What would cause someone to keep shooting when someone is lying on the ground motionless?”
Cunningham disputed the crash. “Did he get out of the car on purpose? Maybe it was planned?” he said.
“If he was specifically targeted,” Zaveski continued, “what might have happened in his life that would have prompted someone to do this?
It was a logical avenue of investigation, but after revealing the tragic news to Jiang’s mother and his fiancée, investigators said Kevin’s image was that of a gifted young man who could not possibly have enemies in the world. He lives with and cares for his mother, whom he brought with him from Seattle. He volunteered to help the homeless, was deeply religious, and served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army National Guard. He proposed to Perry just a week ago, who announced the news on Facebook on the anniversary of their meeting at a Christian retreat.
Kevin Jiang and Zion Perry / Image source: Facebook
The Rev. Gregory Hendrickson summed up Greene for the newly engaged young couple. “They obviously have a lot in common,” he began. “They both loved nature. Zion was a scientist who studied molecular biophysics and biochemistry … and he studied in the School of the Environment. They were both bright and hard-working students,” he said, “but they didn’t feel like their achievements defined them on the deepest level.”
Zaveski and Cunningham knew they faced a daunting investigation. Jiang Zemin’s killing may just be another random shooting incident by a mysterious .45 caliber gunman. Whoever the shooter was, he’s still at large.
“The suspect is out there,” Zaveski said. “He has not been identified. We don’t know where he went… and we don’t know what he will do next.”
With few leads to follow and a black SUV vaguely visible on surveillance video at the scene, they knew they might need a break. The next day, they received an emergency call from Sgt. Jeffrey Mills of the nearby North Haven Police Department. He gave them shocking information about two different 911 calls.
The first incident occurred about half an hour after Jiang Zemin was killed. He said a motorist looking for a nearby highway entrance accidentally drove outside a scrap metal yard and became stranded on a deserted, snow-covered railroad track. motorists, Pan Qinxuanfrom Malden, Massachusetts. His record was clean and he was calm, using excuses that Mills had heard before from other people who had gotten lost near the scrapyard. So he helped Pan find a trailer and a nearby hotel room. Mills was unaware at the time that a murder had occurred in New Haven.
But about 15 hours later, at 11 a.m. on February 7, Mills received another 911 call at an Arby’s, where employees found a bag containing a gun and a box of .45-caliber bullets. The Arby’s is next door to the Best Western Hotel where Pan was taken. That’s when he learned that Kevin Jiang had been murdered by someone driving a black SUV similar to Pan’s. That’s when he came across New Haven Homicide.
It turned out that Pan had checked into the hotel but had never checked in. Pan was attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and living with his parents when Zaveski sent detectives to Malden, but no one was home.
Zaveski turned to the computer to search for Pan, hoping to find a connection to Jiang. “We’re going to use Facebook as a tool to try to understand an individual’s background and who their friends are,” Zawski explained. But it seems to have nothing to do with Jiang.
“So, you go down the list,” Green said, “and there’s nothing, nothing, and you’re like, ‘Wow.'”
“That’s our connection,” Zaveski replied. That contact was Zion Perry, who was listed as a friend of Pan’s. Perry and Pan met in a Christian group when Perry was an undergraduate at MIT. Although Perry barely knew Pan and had not had contact with him since she left MIT and moved to New Haven to attend Yale University, homicide detectives felt they were more than just taking a break. They have a potential suspect missing from their home. One possible motive: an obsession with Perry.
“It seemed like neither Kevin nor Zion realized that Penn had a secret obsession behind the scenes,” Zawski said. After all, Ginger’s murder happened a week after Perry posted photos of their engagement and their previous dates on Facebook.
Pan Qinxuan/Photo source: Pan Qinxuan/Facebook
Investigators believe Pan was also responsible for four .45-caliber shootings that were part of a premeditated plan. They speculated the shootings were intended to mislead Jiang, when he was eventually killed, into thinking his death was just another random incident.
“He planned it. He knew we would look at other things,” Cunningham said.
“This was not a random event,” Zaveski added. “He was targeted.”
Now begins their homicide investigation and a massive manhunt for the brilliant, tech-savvy MIT fugitive. U.S. Marshals intervened in the case and learned that Pan’s family had millions of dollars in assets. Pan disappeared and they feared he might try to flee the country. The pressure is on.
“This thing became so high profile very quickly,” U.S. Marshal Joe Galvan told “48 Hours.” “It just intensified.”
Marshals deployed vast resources to hunt Pan. They noticed that Pan’s parents withdrew large amounts of cash and took their son on a long trip south immediately after the murder. The parents were in their car when they were pulled over in Georgia, but their son was missing. They said he just got out of the car and walked away, and they didn’t know where he went. Investigators are skeptical.
“They would go to the ends of the earth to help support and hide him,” said Matthew Duffy, supervisor of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force in Connecticut. Marshals focused on the parents in their search for Pan. They knew finding him would take patience as they used all surveillance techniques to track the family.
It took a few weeks, but eventually, their patience paid off. Pan’s mother ended up making a mistake that led bailiffs to go straight to her son. She called from a hotel using the hotel attendant’s phone. Investigators spoke with the clerk and traced the call, which led them to the location of Pan’s boarding house in Alabama.
“They went there with a small army,” Duffy said. “There were about 20 people … and he just came out and said, ‘I’m the guy you’re looking for.'”
then his arrestPan was carrying about $20,000 in cash, multiple communications devices and his father’s passport. he is charged He accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to 35 years in prison in April 2024 on suspicion of murdering Jiang Zemin.
Pan’s parents were never charged. 48 Hours reached out to the Pans, but they did not respond to our request for comment.
Investigators believe Jiang’s murder may never have been solved if Pan had not been trapped on the tracks that fateful night in February.
“Can he get away with murder?” Green asked Zawski.
“He could have done that,” Zaveski replied. “Had he not been caught in these tracks … it would have been very difficult.”
While investigators, friends and family were relieved that Pan was caught and brought to justice, Jiang’s mother said at Pan’s sentencing that she believed a 35-year sentence was too short a sentence for her only son’s killer.
Perry agreed. “I want to say this specifically about Pan,” she said during the sentencing. “While your sentence is far less than you deserve… there is mercy. May God have mercy on you. May He have mercy on all of us.”
Even four years after Jiang’s death, friends still wonder what Kevin, a man of deep faith, might have thought of his killers.
“Do you think Kevin will forgive Pan?” Green asked Jamila Ayer and Nasia Hubbard, who served in the Army with Jiang.
“Yes, I do,” Hubbard said. Ayer added, “Without a doubt.”
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