A graduate student from Yale University was shot and killed Saturday night in New Haven’s East Rock neighborhood, the school said.
Police responded to reports of seven shots fired at the intersection of Lawrence and Nicoll streets around 8:30 pm to find Kevin Jiang, 26, dead in the middle of the road, the New Haven Independent reported.
The police found Jiang’s body near his Prius, which was damaged in the rear, according to the Independent. The police are investigating whether a car accident preceded the murder.
Jiang, a student at Yale Forest School, lived nearby with his fiance and mother, according to the report. He was an active member of Trinity Baptist Church on State Street, where he was remembered on Sunday as “cheerful, energetic” and “cheerful”.
The victim previously served for a period in the U.S. Army and remained a member of the National Guard at the time of his death, according to his LinkedIn page.
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 to apprehend the person or persons responsible,” said Salovey in a statement.
Jiang is the first Yale graduate student murdered in New Haven since 2009, when police found animal research technician Annie Le, 24, stuck in the wall of the laboratory where she worked.
Le’s 44-year-old co-worker ended up accepting the crime, and Yale agreed to pay the family $ 3 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that the university did not adequately protect women on campus.