Kevin Jiang Yale grad student identified as New Haven East Rock shooting victim. Police classify shooting as homicide. No suspects or arrests as seven gunshots fired.
An individual shot and killed in Connecticut’s New Haven’s East Rock neighborhood on Saturday has been identified as a Yale graduate student.
Police responded to reports of seven shots fired at the intersection of Lawrence and Nicoll streets, in the Goatville section of East Rock, circa 8:30 p.m. There they found a 26 year old man, Yale graduate student, Kevin Jiang lying dead in the middle of the road, the New Haven Independent reported.
Cops found Jiang’s body in close proximity to his Prius, which had rear-end damage. Police are investigating whether a car crash preceded the slaying.
A neighbor told the New Haven Register she heard two shots, a pause, and then five or so more shots. The woman, who was not named by the newspaper, said, “We were scared to go near the window. When we finally looked outside, there was someone lying in the middle of Lawrence Street.”
Jiang, a student at Yale’s forestry school, lived nearby with his fiancé and mother. He was an active member of Trinity Baptist Church on State Street, where he was remembered Sunday as ‘cheerful, energetic’ and ‘joyful.’
BREAKING: Fatal shooting Nash & Lawrence Streets #NewHaven .@WTNH pic.twitter.com/k7qMkF6gtk
— CTLaSalle Blanks (@CTLaSalleBlanks) February 7, 2021
‘Life is a gift that I am so thankful for.’
Jiang previously served a stint in the US Army and remained a member of the National Guard at the time of his death, according to his LinkedIn page.
Jiang who lived in West Haven, according to his Facebook profile was studying environmental science at Yale. Jiang’s profile header reads, ‘Life is a gift that I am so thankful for.’
Jiang & his girlfriend were engaged in January, posting on Facebook, ‘I can’t wait to care for you & serve you & build God’s Kingdom with you’.
Jiang was set to finish graduate school at Yale in 2021, and was going to turn 27 on Valentine’s Day, February 14.
No suspect, no arrests.
Yale President Peter Salovey called Jiang ‘an extraordinary young man.’
‘The New Haven Police Department is treating this incident as a homicide and is actively working on apprehending the person or people responsible,’ Salovey said in a statement.
Jiang is the first Yale graduate student murdered in New Haven since 2009, when cops found 24-year-old animal research technician Annie Le stuffed in a wall in the lab where she worked.
Le’s 44-year-old male coworker eventually conceded to the crime, and Yale agreed to pay her family $3 million to settle a lawsuit alleging the university had failed to adequately protect women on campus.
