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NY Times exec allegedly slain by in-laws in California was reportedly mired in bitter divorce dispute

Summer Lin, Los Angeles Times on

Published in News & Features

Police in Northern California are investigating the circumstances around the killing of a 40-year-old New York Times executive who was fatally shot by his in-laws in a parking lot over the weekend, officials said.

Officers found Jonathan McKinsey, a resident of Dublin, Calif., in the parking lot with gunshot wounds and pronounced him dead at the scene, according to the release.

McKinsey was director of engineering for New York Times Games, the company confirmed. He had worked there for more than three years. McKinsey previously worked as an engineering manager at Splunk and UKG, according to his LinkedIn profile. He received a bachelor's degree at Georgia Tech in 2010 and a master's degree from UC Berkeley in 2015.

The shooting took place amid a bitter divorce between McKinsey, who was facing a child abuse case, and his wife, Candice Jang, according to reporting by the San Francisco Chronicle. The newspaper also reported that Jang and McKinsey had each sought restraining orders and made several allegations of abuse against each other in court.

On Saturday afternoon, a Dublin police sergeant was driving near the city's sports complex when he saw a person lying on the ground in the parking lot, according to a police news release. The victim was later identified as McKinsey. Several witnesses were in the area at the time, local news outlets reported.

While the sergeant stopped to investigate, police dispatchers were simultaneously getting 911 calls about the incident, according to the release.

"This place is busy on a Saturday," witness Kevin Stein of Dublin told KTVU-TV. "It's incredible that they'd just do that right in front of everybody."

According to police, McKinsey's killers were his in-laws, married couple Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, of Dublin.

They were arrested nearby on suspicion of murder and booked into Santa Rita Jail.

Dublin Sports Grounds was closed during the investigation and has since been reopened to the public, police said.

The investigation into the shooting and what led up to it is ongoing.

 

McKinsey filed for divorce last December, according to the Chronicle. A family law status conference was scheduled for Oct. 2.

McKinsey was charged with two counts of misdemeanor child abuse last October, according to the news outlet, citing court records. Jang reported to Dublin police that McKinsey allegedly hit their 6-year-old son in the face. She also told police about another domestic violence incident in 2018, in which McKinsey allegedly grabbed and bruised her left arm.

McKinsey pleaded not guilty to both charges and was released from jail on the condition that he complete parenting classes, according to the publication.

Also last October, Jang filed for a domestic violence prevention order, which was granted, The Chronicle reported.

In the order, Jang alleged that McKinsey abused her and their three children for years.

McKinsey also accused Jang of abuse and filed for a restraining order against his wife, accusing her of hitting him with a frying pan in 2013, according to court records obtained by the Mercury News.

McKinsey, who was transgender, alleged in the filings that Jang's mother used anti-LGBTQ+ slurs against him and one of the couple's children, the Mercury News reported. Chen allegedly called the child a "disgusting queer" and a "pervert."

McKinsey accused his wife of pulling medical tubes from his body after a medical procedure related to his transition, according to the publication. He also alleged that Jang's father punched him in the chest when he was recovering from a mastectomy surgery.

(Times staff writers Iris Kwok and Richard Winton contributed to this report.)


©2026 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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