Roadside shooting of Yale graduate student may have been targeted, say police

A Yale University graduate student who was fatally shot may have been the victim of a “targeted” road-rage incident, police say.

Kevin Jiang, 26, was shot multiple times on a street in New Haven, Connecticut, and pronounced dead at the scene.

“We are looking into whether or not Mr Jiang was targeted,” said the city's police chief Otoniel Reyes.

“We have developed information that the incident may not have been a random act, that he was in effect targeted.

“This was not a drive-by. This was much more up close. We have very specific leads we are exploring.”

Neighbours told police that they heard seven shots and emergency responders found newly-engaged Mr Jiang, a forestry graduate student, laying in the road.

Mr Jiang, a former Army tank operator, was killed near his Toyota Prius, which had rear-end damage and investigators are looking into the possibility that it was involved in a crash before the killing.

The killing saw Mr Jiang became the first Yale student to be murdered in New Haven since 2009.