Mugshots show an elderly California couple with solemn expressions after they were accused of fatally shooting their transgender son-in-law, a New York Times technology executive.
Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, allegedly killed 40-year-old Jonathan McKinsey in the parking lot of Dublin Sports Grounds in Dublin, California, on Saturday, according to local police.
McKinsey, who had served as the New York Times’ head of engineering for games player experience since 2023, was struck by several bullets and pronounced dead at the scene.
Witnesses told investigators that two masked attackers walked up to McKinsey in the lot and alternated firing at him. The pair then reportedly left the area in a calm manner.
The suspects were later shown being detained along the roadside after shocked witnesses reportedly alerted a nearby police sergeant and helped flag them down.
Zhang and Chen were subsequently booked into Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail. They are being held without bail on allegations including murder, felony conspiracy, child endangerment and the reckless discharge of a firearm.
Investigators have not publicly established a motive for the shooting.
Authorities are reportedly examining claims involving alleged child and domestic abuse, along with McKinsey’s accusations that his in-laws made disparaging comments about his gender transition and once attempted to remove medical tubes during a procedure.
Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, are accused of killing 40-year-old Jonathan McKinsey in the parking lot of Dublin Sports Grounds in Dublin, California, on Saturday
Jonathan McKinsey, 40, served as the New York Times’ head of engineering for games and died at the scene after suffering multiple gunshot wounds
In court records obtained by Mercury News, McKinsey’s wife, Candice Jang, alleged that he struck her six-year-old son in the face during an argument about LEGOs. She said the child was left with a “very large bruise” in the shape of a handprint.
Jang also alleged that McKinsey had assaulted her in 2018 by gripping her wrist so forcefully that it left bruising.
According to deputies, officers responding to that incident found a two-year-old child alone in an upstairs bedroom while McKinsey had reportedly gone shopping.
McKinsey was charged with misdemeanor counts of cruelty to a child by endangering health and corporal injury to a child. He was released after posting $50,000 bail.
Mercury News reported that, at the time of his death, he was seeking entry into a mental health diversion program that could have led to the charges being dismissed after successful completion.
In later court filings, an attorney for Jang alleged that McKinsey was “simply prone to domestic violence and child abuse.” The lawyer added that the incidents described in Jang’s earlier complaint were “far from the first time” he had allegedly used physical violence against her or members of her family.
“Due to his violent and negligent history, our children are simply not safe when left unsupervised and in his care,” Jang wrote in a filing submitted last month.
McKinsey disputed those allegations in his own court documents, claiming instead that Jang had subjected him to abuse for more than 15 years.
McKinsey had worked in games technology at the New York Times since 2023
Possible motives under examination include allegations of child and domestic abuse, as well as McKinsey’s claims that his in-laws made derogatory remarks about transgender people
In 2013, he claimed she beat him with a frying pan, according to the court documents.
He also claimed Jang verbally denigrated the children, and alleged that Chen, Jang’s mother, was verbally abusive to one of the couple’s young children, raising objections over the child’s clothing.
McKinsey, who was transgender, claimed Chen directed anti-LGBTQ+ slurs at him and the child, referring first to the child and then to McKinsey as a ‘disgusting queer’ and a ‘pervert.’
The New York Times tech executive further accused Jang of being abusive during medical procedures related to his transition, claiming that at one point she tried to pull medical tubes from his body shortly after he underwent a procedure, according to the Mercury News.
He also alleged that Jang’s father, who was not named in the filing, punched him in the chest while he was recovering from a double mastectomy.
McKinsey ultimately filed for divorce from Jang in December, and the couple continued to litigate child custody, with a court hearing scheduled for Friday, Mercury News reports.
But it remains unclear whether Zhang and Chen may have been motivated to kill McKinsey over the allegations of abuse or disagreements over his gender identity.
‘Part of our investigation is looking for motives from all angles as well as looking at the histories and relationships of everyone involved and associated with the victim and suspects,’ Captain Michael Campos, of Dublin Police Services, told the Post.
Images showed the suspects being taken into custody by the side of the road, after they were reportedly flagged down by stunned witnesses to a nearby police sergeant
Witnesses said the elderly couple walked calmly away from the scene of the shooting, and they were arrested after being tracked to a black sedan (above) at a nearby intersection
Witness Assad Razawi had told ABC7 he heard several gunshots ringing out from across the parking lot, before he ‘saw the guy drop to the floor.’
‘(His) head and chest were bloody,’ the witness said of McKinsey.
Another witness added that they then saw a ‘man and a woman walking together and casually walk away from the shooting’ moments later.
A sergeant who was driving nearby saw McKinsey lying on the ground, police said, and officers were scrambled to the parking lot.
Razawi told the San Francisco Chronicle that after witnesses saw two shooters calmly walking away, they were found in a black sedan at a nearby intersection.
A spokesman for the New York Times confirmed to the New York Post that McKinsey had been employed as head of games at the company since 2023.
He was previously an engineering manager at software company Splunk and he studied at UC Berkeley.
Zhang and Chen’s arraignment has been scheduled for Wednesday.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Dublin Police for comment.