Jonathan McKinsey, 40, was shot to death around 3 p.m. on September 28 in the parking lot of the Dublin Sports Grounds in Dublin, California, about 35 miles east of San Francisco. A police sergeant driving nearby saw him on the ground, and witnesses pointed officers to a couple still near the scene: McKinsey's 77-year-old in-laws, Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen.
Police said the couple was detained as they drove away in a Honda Civic. A gun was found in Chen's possession, and another firearm was recovered from the car that Zhang admitted using. Prosecutors say surveillance video shows both Zhang and Chen shooting the victim. Zhang later admitted during an interview that he killed McKinsey; Chen invoked her Miranda rights. The pair face murder charges with a "lying in wait" special circumstance, multiple firearm allegations, conspiracy and child endangerment.
The New York Times confirmed McKinsey had worked at the paper since 2023 as head of engineering for games player experience. He previously held engineering roles at Oracle, Coursera and Splunk and held a master's degree in computer science from UC Berkeley. A Times newsroom source told the California Post that staffers were "all shook up" — a colleague had become the victim of a family killing with a "wacky" backstory.
McKinsey was in the middle of a contentious divorce and custody battle with his wife, Candice Jang — Zhang and Chen's daughter. Married since about 2011 with three young children, the two were due at a divorce hearing just days after the killing.
Both sides had sought restraining orders. Jang reported McKinsey to police in 2023, accusing him of shoving a child, and obtained a domestic-violence protection order in October 2025 after he was arrested on misdemeanor child-abuse charges — he acknowledged slapping a child. In December 2025, McKinsey filed his own restraining order and filed for divorce.
McKinsey was transgender, having transitioned from female to male in 2010. In court filings he alleged years of verbal and physical abuse from Jang and her parents over the transition: Chen called him a "disgusting queer" and a "pervert"; he said Zhang punched him in the chest while he recovered from double-mastectomy surgery; and he claimed Jang tried to pull medical tubes out of his body. Jang denied his allegations in her filings.
At a September 30 first appearance, Chen told the judge through an interpreter she could not afford counsel; a public defender was arranged and the case continued. The October 1 arraignment was postponed to October 2. Both remain held at Santa Rita Jail and could face life without parole if convicted. Police have not formally disclosed a motive, and the two sides' accounts of this family tragedy remain sharply opposed.