“Do you have any, any more information on maybe occupants, how many?” a North Haven emergency dispatcher asked the night of Kevin Jiang’s murder.
“Occupied times two,” a New Haven police dispatcher replied. “Possibly one occupant is a Black male with a yellow sweater. No further info.”
In that brief exchange, lasting roughly 30 seconds at around 10:23 p.m. on Feb. 6, a New Haven police dispatcher made a key error that —combined with a North Haven police officer’s informed leniency at that very same time — enabled alleged killer Qinxuan Pan to flee the state for months until a nationwide law enforcement manhunt could catch up with him.
In response to a Connecticut Freedom of Information Act request, the Independent obtained four separate audio recordings of the bulletin that a dispatcher in New Haven’s Public Safety Communications department put out to surrounding town police departments the night that Pan allegedly shot and killed Jiang, a 26-year-old Yale grad student, on Lawrence Street in the Goatville section of East Rock.
The first audio file records a New Haven dispatcher reaching out on an emergency hotline to surrounding towns.
“Just be advised for officer safety, New Haven is looking for a black SUV, possibly a GMC Terrain, involved in a homicide in our town at Nash and Lawrence,” she said. “Again, per officer safety, a black SUV, possibly a GMC Terrain, that was involved in a homicide.”
In the second audio recording, a North Haven dispatcher asks how long ago the homicide took place.
“It occurred an hour ago,” the New Haven dispatcher responds in the third audio recording.
“Ok, roger,” the North Haven dispatcher said. “Do you have any, any more information on maybe occupants, how many?”
“Occupied times two,” the New Haven police dispatcher replied. “Possibly one occupant is a Black male with a yellow sweater. No further info.”
“Got it,” said the North Haven dispatcher.
In the fourth and final audio recording, the North Haven dispatcher reaches back out, saying, “North Haven to New Haven. I’m sorry. Where did this occur, please?”
“Nash and Lawrence,” the New Haven dispatcher responds. “At the corner of Nash and Lawrence.”
Why The Error Mattered
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The Universal Drive scrap metal yard where North Haven police found Pan.
This brief exchange between New Haven and North Haven dispatchers had a significant impact on what happened next, according to separate arrest warrant affidavits previously reported on by the Independent.
A New Haven Police Department arrest warrant affidavit revealed that the New Haven public safety dispatcher erroneously reported to surrounding departments that the murder suspect might be Black, even though no 911 calls, no witness interviews, and no evidence collected on scene indicated that a Black suspect might have been involved. “It was later determined that the police dispatcher erroneously broadcasted that the occupant was possibly a black male,” New Haven Police Det. David Zaweski wrote in the New Haven warrant. “No witnesses on scene, nor any 911 callers, described the occupant(s) of the SUV as a black male.”
A separate North Haven Police Department arrest warrant affidavit subsequently revealed that North Haven Police Officer Marcus Artaiz was with Pan — who is Asian— at the time that he received the dispatch identifying a potential suspect as a Black man in a yellow sweater.
Artaiz knew that Pan had been driving a dark-colored GMC Terrain SUV, the very same type of car identified in that same New Haven dispatch about the murder suspect. He also knew Pan’s car had a stolen license plate, and he had found Pan driving on railroad tracks in a junkyard after dark. Nevertheless, he ultimately let the 30-year-old MIT artificial intelligence researcher go.
Artaiz wrote in his affidavit that one of the key reasons he let Pan go and returned to North Haven Police headquarters was because “the information contained in the broadcast did not match the operator.”
“That the broadcast issued by the New Haven Police Department regarding their homicide described a possibly a black male [sp.] wearing a yellow coat or sweater and a black GMC SUV,” Artaiz wrote. “Pan is an Asian male and his GMC is dark blue but could be easily mistaken for black in the nighttime. Pan was also in the possession of a yellow jacket during his interaction with the North Haven Police Department on 02/06/2021 based on body camera footage that was viewed the day following the undersigned’s contact with Pan.”
After Artaiz let Pan go, he subsequently fled south, leading to a three-month-long nationwide manhunt that ended with the U.S. Marshals arresting him in Montgomery, Ala. in May. Pan is currently being held on a $20 million bond for the New Haven Police charge of murder.
The New Haven dispatcher’s error has also led to an outcry by Black civic leaders about how and why a New Haven 911 dispatcher wrongfully claimed Jiang’s murder was committed by a Black man.
911 Director: Dispatcher Counseled, Retrained, Not Disciplined
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911 call center Director George Peet: Retraining ordered.
On Wednesday afternoon, Public Safety Communications Director George Peet said that the New Haven dispatcher who committed this error is a Hispanic female who has worked for the city’s 911 call center for roughly five years.
He refused to disclose her name, citing privacy requirements mandated by the local union contract.
He did say that the dispatcher “has been remedially trained, spoken to, and counseled. That’s how we handle any incident where a dispatcher makes an error.”
What exactly does that retraining entail?
“They go back to the training supervisor and they look at each individual incident. They’d look at this type of incident where mistakes were made, and they retrain and go over what was done wrong and what our SOPs [standard operating procedures] and policies ask of us about what could be done better next time.”
City officials declined to release the name of the dispatcher who made the mistake because no formal FOIA request has been made for the employee’s name.
City spokesperson Kyle Buda said that there is not a formal internal affairs complaint filed against this employee, and therefore she was not technically disciplined. Instead, she was retrained and counseled, per department protocol.
Before jumping to wild conclusions and assumptions, hyperbole, conspiracy theories, and instant accusations of racism, people should read the transcript.
The New Haven dispatcher made three mistakes in reporting this incident: 1. It was reported that the SUV was BLACK. It was BLUE. 2. It was reported that the SUV had TWO occupants. There was ONE occupant. 3. It was reported that ONE occupant was "POSSIBLY" a Black male. POSSIBLY. The occupant was ASIAN.
There was no definite assertion that the alleged perpetrator was Black!
In the darkness of night and the panic of the moment, if a blue SUV could appear black to some witnesses, if one occupant of the SUV could appear to some as two, could an Asian male be mistakenly be considered Black?
Errors were made. It happens. The question is was racial bias and malicious intent the motive of the New Haven disbatcher?
That is the logical, reasonable and moral question we all should consider before making changes of intended racism in this unfortunate incident.
Consider the FACTS, not the politicized, divisive hyperbole of some among us.