A New York Times engineering executive shot dead in a parking lot in Dublin, California, had spent years locked in bitter legal disputes with his estranged wife and her parents, who are now charged with his murder, according to court records.
Jonathan McKinsey, 40, was the Times’ head of engineering for games player experience and had worked at the paper since 2023. He was killed around 3 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot of a sports complex in Dublin, a city in Alameda County. Police have arrested his in-laws, Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, on murder charges.
Court documents obtained by The Mercury News show McKinsey’s marriage to Candice Jang had unraveled well before the shooting. Jang filed for a restraining order against McKinsey in 2025, and he responded with a restraining order petition of his own.
In his filing, McKinsey said Jang tried to pull medical tubes from his body in 2010 while he was transitioning from female to male. The couple married the following year, in 2011.
McKinsey also alleged that his mother-in-law, Chen, called him a “disgusting queer” and a “pervert” during a dispute over one of the couple’s children’s choice of clothing.
The filings describe a marriage marked by repeated allegations of violence on both sides. McKinsey claimed Jang beat him with a frying pan in 2013 and accused her of verbally abusing their children. His petition also alleged that Chen was verbally abusive toward the children during arguments over clothing.
Jang, for her part, told investigators about a 2018 incident in which McKinsey allegedly bruised her left arm. In 2025, Alameda County prosecutors charged McKinsey with two counts of misdemeanor child abuse after Jang called Dublin police to report that he had struck her six-year-old son in the face with an open hand. McKinsey pleaded not guilty to both charges and was released from jail on condition that he complete parenting classes.
A spokesman for the Times confirmed McKinsey was the victim of Saturday’s shooting.
