Jonathan McKinsey, a senior technology manager at The New York Times, was shot dead by his wife's elderly parents, who according to witnesses unleashed a barrage of gunfire at him in a California parking lot, taking turns shooting him.
McKinsey, who joined the company in 2023 and served as an engineering manager in the Games department, was in the midst of a legal battle with his estranged wife, the daughter of the murder suspects, and was fighting her for custody of their three children.
Gallery
Jonathan McKinsey. He had been released on bail and was killed while seeking admission to a rehabilitation program
McKinsey, 40, was shot dead at around 3 p.m. Saturday in a parking lot near a sports complex in Dublin, California, about 35 miles east of San Francisco. Witnesses said they saw two masked people approach McKinsey, take turns shooting him and then walk away from the scene "casually."
"I saw the guy drop to the floor: head bloody and chest bloody," said witness Assad Razawi. His daughter added that her father saw the killers "walking together and then casually walk away from the shooting."
Authorities later identified the suspected shooters as Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, the 77-year-old parents of McKinsey's wife, Candice Jang, from whom he had recently separated. A police officer arrested them shortly afterward. They now face a series of charges, including first-degree murder.
McKinsey was a transgender man who transitioned in 2010 and married Candice in 2011. Court documents show that their relationship deteriorated in the years that followed, and in 2023 she reported to police that he had been violent toward her and their three children.
Among other allegations, she said he subjected the children to severe physical punishment, including striking their 6-year-old son hard in the face during an argument over a Lego game. She also alleged that in other incidents he left marks from physical violence on the children or on her and that, in at least one case, he left one of the children unsupervised for an hour while he went shopping.
Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, Candice's parents. Suspected of first-degree murder
Following the complaints and information gathered by authorities, McKinsey was arrested and charged with child cruelty involving endangerment of a child's health and inflicting corporal injury on a child. He pleaded not guilty.
He was released on $50,000 bail and alleged that Jang, his wife, had in fact been violent toward him for more than 15 years. He said she struck him with a frying pan in 2013 and, on other occasions, verbally humiliated their children.
At the time of his killing, McKinsey was free on bail and seeking admission to a mental health diversion program that could have led to the charges against him being dismissed. He also accused his wife and her parents of making anti-LGBTQ remarks about him and one of their children.
Among other allegations, he said his mother-in-law called him slurs including "pervert" and "monster." He also alleged that his father-in-law struck him in the chest after he underwent surgery to remove his breasts, while he was still recovering.
McKinsey had recently been pursuing legal proceedings seeking more time with his three children, after saying that his supervised visitation had been limited to just two hours a week. The killing also occurred just one week before a scheduled hearing on the couple's divorce petition.
McKinsey was engineering manager for player experience in The New York Times' Games department, a role that in the technology industry involves leading development teams responsible for the platform's infrastructure, interfaces and technical performance for users.
The Games department is one of the Times' most successful digital operations. Its offerings include the global hit Wordle, the word game Connections, Spelling Bee and the Times' famous daily crossword puzzle.
Before joining The New York Times, McKinsey worked as an engineering manager at software company Splunk and studied at the University of California, Berkeley.