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MIT Grad Student 'Person Of Interest' In Connecticut Homicide

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (CBS/AP) -- Police in New Haven, Connecticut, are searching for an MIT graduate student in connection with the murder of a Yale graduate student.

Police said Kevin Jiang, a graduate student at Yale University, was shot multiple times on Lawrence Street on Saturday night. Police are searching for 29-year-old Qinxuan Pan as a person of interest.

"Mr. Pan should be considered armed and dangerous," said New Haven Police Chief Otoniel Reyes.

Kevin Jiang, 26, a student of Yale's School of the Environment, was shot multiple times and found lying outside his car on a New Haven street on Saturday night. Police have said they are looking into whether he was killed in a road rage incident following a car crash.

Jiang, a Seattle native, had recently gotten engaged to be married. He earned a bachelor's degree in environmental studies at the University of Washington and was an Army veteran and Army National Guard member, according to his LinkedIn page and Yale officials. In the Army, he was a tank operator and a chemical, biological, radiation and nuclear officer, according to Yale.

"We're not prepared to tell you what our information is regarding their involvement," Reyes said in a press conference Wednesday.

Reyes said police believe Pan has left Connecticut. His last known address was in Malden.

Pan has been enrolled as a graduate student in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science since September 2014, where he also received his undergraduate degrees.

Police said they have a warrant for Pan's arrest for possession of a stolen vehicle.

"We are not prepared to identify him as the shooter at this point," Reyes said.

MIT said in a statement that Jiang's fiancee graduated from MIT in 2020 and that the college extended "our heartfelt condolences to her, the Yale community, and all those impacted in this unfathomably painful time."

(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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