In an execution-style hit, an elderly couple allegedly took turns riddling a trans-identifying New York Times executive married to their daughter with bullets in broad daylight in Dublin, California.
On Saturday afternoon, Jonathan McKinsey, 40, the newspaper’s director of engineering for its Games division, was gunned down and killed in the parking lot of the Dublin Sports Grounds. McKinsey, who transitioned female-to-male in 2010 before marrying Candice Jang in 2011, was supposed to go to court in a custody hearing just days later.
McKinsey’s 77-year-old in-laws, Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, reportedly took turns firing into McKinsey’s body before walking away. Witnesses described hearing five or six shots before watching the victim drop to the floor, bleeding from the head and chest. The elderly couple was picked up by police minutes later at a nearby intersection and taken to jail.
Legal documents revealed a backdrop of domestic abuse, death threats, and a bitter custody battle. According to court filings, McKinsey’s estranged wife, Jang, claimed McKinsey had terrorized her and her elderly parents for years. In an August filing, Jang alleged that McKinsey had explicitly threatened to murder her, her mom, and her dad.
McKinsey also had allegedly presented their three young kids, 3, 5, and 7, with a birthday gift: a book about a young girl mourning her deceased mother. Jang called the choice deeply disturbing, saying in a court filing, “Jonathan dismisses my concern about a book he provided to the children concerning the death of a mother. He omits the context that makes the conduct frightening to me. Jonathan has previously threatened to kill me and my parents.”
“During our marriage, the children and I learned to avoid provoking Jonathan lest he became angry,” she also noted. “In my experience, appearing agreeable or happy around him was sometimes a means of avoiding his anger.”
Court records show McKinsey was facing misdemeanor child abuse charges after Jang called cops in 2025 to report slapping the couple’s 6-year-old son across the face. When deputies responded to the scene, they found the couple’s 2-year-old child had been left unattended upstairs while McKinsey went shopping. Records also showed a 2018 domestic violence incident where McKinsey allegedly grabbed Jang’s arm, leaving visible bruises. McKinsey pleaded not guilty and was ordered to complete parenting classes.
“McKinsey alleged his mother-in-law directed anti-LGBTQ slurs at him and one of the couple’s children, and claimed his father-in-law hit him in the chest while he was recovering from double mastectomy surgery,” Fox News reported.
Both had filed cross-restraining orders against one another in 2025, and McKinsey had recently moved out of their family home.
A transgender New York Times Games executive was shot and killed outside a Dublin, California, sports complex Saturday — and police arrested his own in-laws on suspicion of murder within minutes.
Jonathan McKinsey, 40, had accused his estranged wife's parents, Shouyong Zhang,… pic.twitter.com/E5oTpxNdSF
— Fox News US (@FoxUSNews) September 29, 2026
Zhang and Chen are currently being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail, facing heavy charges including first-degree murder, felony conspiracy, discharge of a firearm, and child endangerment. The 77-year-old grandparents are scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday morning.
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