Jonathan McKinsey, New York Times tech executive shot dead by his Chinese in laws, Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen at Dublin, California parking lot. Man was married to Candice Jang who he had previously faced domestic violence against along with child abuse charges relating to the couple’s children.
A New York Times tech executive was shot dead by his elderly Chinese in-laws at a California parking lot over the weekend.
Jonathan McKinsey, 40, the newspaper’s head of engineering for games player experience, was allegedly killed by Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, in the parking lot of Dublin Sports Grounds in the East Bay city of Dublin around 3.p.m Saturday, police said.
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, Dublin police confirmed.
In-laws took turns shooting son in law at Dublin, California parking lot
Officers patrolling the area spotted the tech executive with multiple gunshot wounds as emergency dispatch began receiving 911 calls in the moments after the shooting.
First responders attempted aid only for McKinsey, a Dublin resident to mortally succumb to his wounds according to a release from Dublin Police.
Witnesses reported seeing two masked assailants approach McKinsey in the lot. They said the shooters took turns unloading bullets into the victim before they ‘calmly’ walked away.
The couple were arrested by a passing cop just moments later.
Footage from the scene showed a body lying in the parking lot in broad daylight, before a couple was bundled into the back of a cop car.
Dublin, California in-laws faces series of felony charges including first degree murder
Zhang, who stands 5ft 8in and weighs 165 pounds, allegedly carried out the attack alongside his wife, who measures just 5ft 2in and weighs 110 pounds, according to Alameda County Sheriff’s Office inmate records.
While the elderly couple is from the Dublin area, they also have ties to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Zhang and Chen were booked into Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of murder. McKinsey had been married to their daughter Candice Jang, the nypost reported.
The in laws now face a series of felony charges, including first-degree murder, felony conspiracy, dangerously firing a gun, and child endangerment that could’ve caused major injury or death.
Prior domestic violence and child abuse charges
According to court records cited by the San Francisco Gate, last year McKinsey was charged with two counts of misdemeanor child abuse by prosecutors in Alameda County.
A probable cause declaration said a woman told police that her husband, identified as McKinsey, had struck her six-year-old son in the face with an open hand.
The woman also told investigators about an alleged prior domestic violence incident in 2018, claiming McKinsey had bruised her by grabbing her left arm.
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 pleaded not guilty in both incidents and had been released on bail on the condition that he complete 12 parenting classes.
Authorities have not said if they believe the past allegations are connected to Saturday’s fatal shooting.
NYT tech exec career climb
McKinsey’s tech career spans nearly two decades, starting in the late 2000s with hands-on software engineering roles at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Oracle, along with a stint in product strategy at Coursera.
By 2018, he made the jump into engineering management at UKG, eventually leveling up through leadership roles at Splunk.
He joined the New York Times in early 2023 as a senior engineering manager for the games platform, overseeing infrastructure for viral hits like Connections and scaling systems to handle massive traffic surges.
He then moved to the games player experience team as a senior engineering manager and ultimately stepped up as the director of engineering for games player experience in late 2025, where he led a 25-person team driving feature innovation and monetization for millions of daily puzzle players.
McKinsey built the foundation for his tech career at UC Berkeley, where he earned his Master’s in Computer Science back in 2015.
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