$5K Offered For Person Of Interest In Student Murder: Patch PM

MASSACHUSETTS — It's Friday, February 12. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• The parents of a disabled high school student sued the Dennis-Yarmouth Public School District after the girl’s 2018 sexual assault.
• The recognition of Christopher Columbus takes another hit as officials get ready to discuss a new name for a Medford school.
• We don’t know who Massachusetts’ original Cupid is, but he’s definitely from the Worcester area.

Scroll down for those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Friday's Top Story

Authorities are offering a $5,000 reward to find Qinxuan Pan, a Malden man named a person of interest in the murder of a Yale graduate student. Pan may be in Georgia and should be considered "armed and dangerous," the U.S. Marshals said.

Yale student Kevin Jiang, 26, was fatally shot Saturday in the East Rock neighborhood of New Haven, CT. Police said this week Pan is wanted for questioning but is "not a suspect at this time."

Pan is described as 6 feet tall, approximately 170 pounds, with a medium complexion and short black hair. He was last seen driving with family members in Brookhaven or Duluth, GA early Thursday morning, the U.S. Marshals said.

Read more here.

Nearby News

• Andrea Bocelli Elementary? Medford Talks Columbus Replacement: At the School Committee meeting Monday, members spoke about the importance of continuing to honor the city's Italian-American population.
• Malden Cop, Hobby Bunker Fan, Cracks 'Magic' Card Case: Det. Sgt. Peter Mitchell, lead investigator in the Hobby Bunker break-in, had a personal stake in the case: he's a frequent customer.
• Arlington Wraps Up First Responder Vaccinations: The town held its final regional clinic for Phase 1 Wednesday, administering the second dose to police, fire, EMTs and school nurses.

Today’s Other Top Stories In Massachusetts

Parents sue school after daughter’s sexual assault: The parents of a disabled high school student sued the Dennis-Yarmouth Public School District after their daughter was sexually assaulted in a high school bathroom by another student. According to the lawsuit, the sexual assault happened in February 2018 at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School. The girl was 16, but had the mental capacity of a 6-year-old child because she was born with Phelan-McDermid Syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes significant cognitive impairments. As part of her learning plan, she required around-the-clock supervision while she was in school.

Central Mass. Cupid: When you buy a Valentine's Day card for your sweetheart this weekend, you can thank Worcester's Esther Howland for the Feb. 14 tradition. Or maybe you should credit Grafton's Jotham Taft. Although people around the world were exchanging valentines long before the Massachusetts Bay Colony was established, the commercialization of the holiday in the U.S. was born in the Worcester area. But there's a bit of a dispute over whether it was Howland or Taft who invented the mass-market Valentine's Day card.

‘We Did It!’: One of the first people to get the vaccine in Westford was Hartwig "Dr. Hart" Achenbach – at age 99 last month. Now, the facility where he's staying is hoping to help him celebrate his 100th birthday surrounded by the well wishes of the community.

By The Numbers

106: That’s how old S. Prestley Blake, the co-founder of Friendly’s, was when he died Thursday. The businessman and philanthropist, born in 1914, co-founded the ice cream shop in 1935.

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