NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Members of the Yale University community, as well as the New Haven community, are mourning the loss of 26-year-old Kevin Jiang.
Police say Jiang was shot and killed Saturday night. Jiang was recently engaged, had a birthday coming up this month, and was a second-year master's student at Yale's School of the Environment and set to graduate this fall when his life was tragically cut short.
"Good things were happening in his life, he was a young man ready to go through all those good things, and somebody took his life and it's horrible especially because he was a veteran," said Richard Pompano of New Haven.
Jiang served in the U.S. Army and was a member of the National Guard. Major General Francis Evon of the CT National Guard released a statement that read in part:
"Our hearts are heavy having lost a brother and bright young member of our team with nothing but potential ahead of him."
He says Jiang was volunteering to support COVID-19 relief efforts. Jiang's death has sent shockwaves through the Yale campus.
"It sounds like he was a big part of the campus community here so it's really sad," said Lisa Baik of New Haven.
It's also shocked the neighborhood where the shooting happened.
"Every day to and from the lab on campus and yeah I've definitely walked this very street around the same time so it's definitely scary thinking something happened so close to home, literally," said Baik.
"Something like this is definitely out of the ordinary for this neighborhood. I've lived in New Haven 32 years and I don't see this often," said Pompano.
Jiang's death marks the city's sixth homicide of the year.
"We all know that this violence in our city is traumatizing our community," said Rev. Dr. Boise Kimber of First Calvary Baptist Church in New Haven.
He and the Greater New Haven Clergy Association are calling on the community to get involved in helping city leaders address the violence.
"This is an urgent call for this administration to pull together a major group to deal with violence in our community," said Kimber.