An elderly couple seemed somber in their mugshots after they allegedly took turns shooting dead their transgender New York Times tech executive son-in-law.
Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, are accused of murdering Jonathan McKinsey, 40, in a parking lot at Dublin Sports Grounds in Dublin, California on Saturday, according to the California Post.
McKinsey, the head of engineering for games player experience at the New York Times since 2023, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died at the scene.
Witnesses reported seeing two masked shooters approach McKinsey in the parking lot and take turns unloading a barrage of shots into him before they ‘calmly’ walked away.
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.
Zhang and Chen have since been booked into Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail and are being held without bail on charges including murder, felony conspiracy, child endangerment and dangerously firing a gun.
A motive for the brazen attack remains unclear.
But authorities are now said to be zeroing in on allegations of child and domestic abuse – as well as McKinsey’s claims that his in-laws made derogatory remarks about his gender transition and even tried to pull out medical tubes during a procedure.
Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, are accused of murdering Jonathan McKinsey, 40, in a parking lot at Dublin Sports Grounds in Dublin, California on Saturday
McKinsey, 40, the head of engineering for games at the New York Times, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died at the scene
In court documents obtained by Mercury News, McKinsey’s wife Candice Jang alleged he hit her six-year-old son in the face during an argument over LEGOs, leaving a ‘very large bruise the shape of a handprint’ on his face.
She also claimed McKinsey had previously been violent with her in 2018 when he grabbed her wrist hard enough to leave bruises.
In that incident, deputies said they arrived at McKinsey’s home to find a two-year-old child left unattended in an upstairs bedroom while McKinsey had left to go shopping.
McKinsey was charged with cruelty to a child by endangering health and corporal injury to a child, both misdemeanors, and was freed on a $50,000 bail.
At the time of his murder, he had also been trying to enter a mental health diversion program, which would have resulted in the charges being dropped upon completion, according to Mercury News.
In subsequent court documents, an attorney for Jang wrote that McKinsey ‘is simply prone to domestic violence and child abuse,’ noting that the incidents she cited in her previous complaint were ‘far from the first time’ he ‘committed physical violence against me or my family members.
‘Due to his violent and negligent history, our children are simply not safe when left unsupervised and in his care,’ Jang wrote in a court filing last month.
But McKinsey claimed in his own court filings that Jang was the one who had been abusive for more than 15 years.
McKinsey had worked in games tech for the New York Times since 2023
Authorities are now said to be zeroing in on allegations of child and domestic abuse – as well as McKinsey’s claims that his in-laws made derogatory remarks about transgender people as possible motives
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.
