Detective Stephen Cunningham
Appearances
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
Two incidents that happened in North Haven the night before and then earlier that morning.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
The common denominator was the caliber of the gun that was used. It's 45 caliber casings that were located at all four of those scenes. And in the last two shootings, there was a description of a dark colored SUV.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
There's a very good chance. the vehicle matched. And the items that were left behind at the Arby's restaurant, it included a .45 caliber handgun, and that matched the casings that were at the scene.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
On February 6th at around 8.30 p.m., we get the report of a person shot at Lawrence and Nichols Street in New Haven. That person was later identified as Kevin Jong and was pronounced deceased on the scene. We located eight .45 caliber shell casings. There were a few 911 callers that saw a dark-colored SUV flee the area.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
The first thing I want to know is who he is and if there's any connection between him and Kevin. I see that he has a Facebook page.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
There was not much activity at all. His last post was back in 2016, and he had a few photos with some other students, but that was it.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
Yes, that was the first time we got the connection between him and MIT. So I check his friends list to see if Kevin is in there.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
Now we have a connection. I got in contact with her. She explained that they had met at MIT back in 2019, and they were more associates than friends.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
No. She said that they never dated. They never had any romantic relationship. The last time she spoke with him was May of 2020. He reached out to her through Facebook Messenger to congratulate her on graduating. He asked to FaceTime with her, and she politely declined it.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
She was, and that's when I told her that he was a person of interest in this. And she was completely shocked. He was barely a part of her life and why he would have been involved with this in any way.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
The last things that she had posted were the engagement between her and Kevin.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
Yes. It did seem like there was a secret obsession of Pan's going on behind the scenes that Kevin wasn't aware of and that Zion wasn't aware of.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
Yeah, he did his best to mislead us. And now we knew that, yes, this wasn't a random incident out there, that he was targeted.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
Kevin's body, he was laying on his right side. His feet were on the stop line here, and his head was towards the first line of the crosswalk. And then we see the casings. There's a shell casing by the bottom of the S and a few feet from the P. And then there were six more spread out by the first crosswalk line. We could see gunshot wounds to his upper body and to his head.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
Yes. We'll use Facebook as a tool to try and get a little background on an individual who they're friends with.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
The patrol officers had already been out there canvassing the area. They were knocking on doors looking for anyone that might have seen anything or heard anything. The crime scene detectives were starting to locate all the shell casings.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
What we could see were gunshot wounds to his upper body and to his head. And you could see stippling on the left side of his head.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
About 100 feet down the street... There was a Prius just parked in the middle of the road with his hazards on.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
There was an impression that was left on the back bumper that looked like a license plate holder.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
When they look out, they see a Prius come to a stop and put its hazards on. They see a dark-colored SUV pull up behind it and then reverse back towards the intersection. They see the operator of the Prius walk out. and approached the SUV, most likely to see how they were, exchange insurance information.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
When the operator gets to the black SUV, they hear a round of gunshots and they see the muzzle flash from the gun from the driver's side of the SUV.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
When she looks outside, she sees a subject wearing all black standing over another individual who's laying on the ground. She hears another round of gunshots, and she can see the muzzle flash from the gun as he's firing.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
There's a little bit more to it. It seems a little bit more personal when you have someone that's laying on the ground and not moving. What would cause someone to continue firing at them?
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
We hear the collision between the two cars. And then that's when you see Kevin's Prius pull into frame and the SUV pulls up behind him and then reverses out of frame. You see Kevin exit his vehicle and then walk out of frame to approach the SUV. You then hear two gunshots, a scream, and then six more gunshots.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
Unfortunately not. You could kind of get the idea of the potential make and model of it with the taillights, but you couldn't discern any identifying features.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
We had detectives in the bureau looking into each of the incidents to see if there's any more of a connection to link them.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
The first shooting occurs on December 11, 2020, at Huntington Street in New Haven. There's a report of five gunshots in the area. The residence was struck multiple times. The house was occupied, but nobody was hit. When police responded, they located multiple .45 caliber shell casings at the scene. There's a second shooting that occurs January 15th, 2021. The third shooting occurred February 5th.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
When the casings are sent to the lab, they all came back as matches to the casings found at the homicide.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
It could have been a road rage incident that turned a little too violent.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
And if he was specifically targeted, what could have happened in his life to drive someone to do this?
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
You want to be direct and upfront and make it clear, as horrific as it is for them. So we explained to her that he was shot and killed in the area of Lawrence and Nickel Street in New Haven.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
It was just the two of them, and he was actually supporting her. She told us that he was a grad student at Yale University and was in the Army National Guard.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
A fourth incident occurred on February 6th. It's another residence. It was occupied, but nobody was hurt inside. There were five rounds that were shot into. Was occupied. Fortunately, nobody was hit. The residents were struck multiple times by gunfire. Nobody was injured. Patrol officers located one .45 caliber located in multiple casings, .45 caliber.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
They had gone ice fishing and had dinner at her house, and then he left her house around 8.30 that night.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
She remembers hearing the gunshots, but she thought there was a good five or ten minutes after he'd left to when she heard the gunshots. So she didn't think he was anywhere near the area and didn't think twice about him potentially being involved in any way.
48 Hours
The Ivy League Murder
That night? Yes. We had a little bit, but there wasn't a lot to go on.