A New York Times executive was gunned down in a Dublin, California, parking lot Saturday, and the suspects in his killing are his own parents-in-law.
Jonathan McKinsey, 40, was the newspaper’s director of engineering for games player experience; according to his LinkedIn, he had worked at the Times since 2023. Before joining the newspaper, McKinsey held engineering positions at well-known companies including Splunk, Oracle, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He also had degrees in computer science from Georgia Tech and UC Berkeley.
The shooting happened around 3:08 p.m. Saturday at the Dublin Sports Grounds, a city park. A Dublin Police Services sergeant was driving near the park when he spotted a man lying in the parking lot and stopped to investigate. At roughly the same time, dispatchers began receiving multiple 911 calls reporting a shooting.
Officers found McKinsey suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in the middle of the parking lot. Emergency medical personnel attempted to save him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Witnesses helped police quickly locate two people who had remained nearby. The suspects were identified as Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77 and both Dublin residents. Police said the married couple are McKinsey’s parents-in-law. Officers detained them within minutes of the shooting, according to Dublin police.
One witness told CBS San Francisco that the two suspects were wearing masks and took turns shooting McKinsey. Another witness, Dublin resident Assad Razawi, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he heard five or six gunshots and then saw a man lying on the ground with blood coming from his chest.
Razawi said a man and woman he believed were involved in the shooting then walked away from the scene. Other witnesses pointed police toward the couple, who were quickly taken into custody.
The circumstances surrounding the shooting, including what led to the confrontation, remain under investigation. Police have not publicly identified a motive or described what role each suspect allegedly played in the shooting. Authorities said there are no outstanding suspects and no known threat to public safety.
Zhang and Chen were booked into Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County. Jail records show they are being held without bail and face allegations including first-degree murder, conspiracy, willful discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, and child endangerment. Chen also faces a separate allegation of conspiracy to fraudulently obtain money, according to court records. The couple is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday, according to The New York Times.
The killing comes after a series of legal disputes involving McKinsey and his wife, Candice Jang, over the past year. According to Alameda County court records reviewed by SFGATE, Jang sought a domestic violence restraining order against McKinsey in October 2025, and McKinsey sought one against Jang in December. McKinsey also filed for divorce in December, and the couple continued to litigate child custody this year.
McKinsey was also charged in 2025 with two misdemeanor counts involving child endangerment and injury to a child, according to court records. The records concerning those cases and the couple’s other legal disputes do not establish that they were connected to Saturday’s shooting, and police have not publicly said that they were a factor.
The New York Times has confirmed McKinsey’s employment, but declined to comment further on the ongoing investigation.
