Mainstream coverage of a shooting Saturday in Dublin, California, has largely presented the case as a grim but conventional family murder: Two elderly parents were arrested after their daughter’s spouse was found dying in a park parking lot.
The victim was identified as Jonathan McKinsey, 40, a New York Times Games engineering director.
That account is factually incomplete and leaves out the details that make the case so strange.
McKinsey was born female and lived as a woman before adopting a male identity.
She “married” Candice Jang, another woman. The couple later had three young children and lived in Dublin.
By late 2025, the household had collapsed into competing court filings, a divorce petition, a custody fight, and criminal charges against McKinsey.
On Saturday, Sept. 26, a Dublin Police Services sergeant was driving near the Dublin Sports Grounds at about 3:08 p.m. He saw a person on the ground in the parking lot as dispatchers began receiving multiple 911 calls reporting a shooting.
Officers found McKinsey with several gunshot wounds. A city news release said the shooting victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
ALERT: New York Times executive allegedly gunned down by his elderly Chinese in-laws who took turns shooting him in a parking lot in California.
Jonathan McKinsey, the newspaper’s head of engineering for games player experience, was shot by Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77
McKinsey was in the parking lot of the Dublin Sports Grounds when officers saw him being treated for the wounds, and a flood of 911 calls came in.
Shouyong and Shili were reportedly taking turns unloading bullets into McKinsey before they were quickly arrested by a cop passing by.
The couple is facing charges of first-degree murder, felony conspiracy, dangerously firing a gun, and child endangerment that could’ve caused major injury or death.
— E X X ➠A L E R T S (@ExxAlerts) September 28, 2026
Witnesses helped officers locate two people who had remained nearby. Police identified them as Shouyong Zhang, 77, and Shili Chen, 77, a married couple who live in Dublin and are Jang’s parents.
Both were booked into Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of murder. Dublin police said there were no other suspects and no known threat to the public.
Witnesses later told CBS Bay Area they saw a man shoot at McKiney, then hand the gun to a woman, who also fired. The witnesses said both people wore masks. Charging papers and subsequent reporting described the pair acting together in a crowded lot.
Zhang and Chen now face murder charges that include personal use of a firearm causing death and a lying-in-wait special circumstance. Booking records also listed conspiracy, willfully discharging a firearm with gross negligence, and child endangerment.
This story is WILD: “Jonathan” McKinsey was a woman who married a woman. The couple had two kids (somehow) but then McKinsey got gender transition and became abusive. The couple was divorcing, but McKinsey’s wife’s elderly Chinese parents murdered him.
https://t.co/3WzEk5VnIv https://t.co/EGOBuyDOPu— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) September 29, 2026
The New York Times told CBS that McKinsey had worked there since January 2023 and was based in Dublin.
Alameda County court records show a year of family litigation before the shooting. Jang sought a domestic-violence restraining order against McKinsey in October 2025. McKinsey sought one against Jang in December and filed for divorce the same month. Custody disputes continued into this year.
Separately, McKinsey was charged in October 2025 with two misdemeanors: child endangerment and injury to a child. Police on Monday would not discuss those charges or the divorce file in connection with the homicide. They said the circumstances of the shooting remained under investigation.
Jang alleged in later custody papers that McKinsey had threatened to kill her and her parents. Jang also said McKinsey had given the children a book about a mother who dies and dismissed her concern about that choice.
McKinsey’s own December 2025 petition said conflict with Jang and her parents was tied to her claimed gender identity. She alleged her mother-in-law used anti-LGBT slurs toward her and one of the children. She also alleged her father-in-law struck her in the chest while she was recovering from double-mastectomy surgery.
Investigators have not announced a motive in the killings.
Zhang initially admitted to shooting McKinsey, according to court records. Chen invoked her rights after arrest. A firearm was found in Chen’s possession and a second gun was recovered from the couple’s car.
The child-endangerment allegation against the in-laws appears tied to the public setting of the shooting, rather than a claim that the children were in the vehicle. Prosecutors said the shooting showed blatant disregard for public safety in a parking lot where children were present. The investigation remains open.
What many national reports have chosen not to dwell on is the full sequence. Two women married, and one later presented herself as a man. The marriage dissolved into mutual accusations of violence, neglect, and death threats.
Then the elderly parents of one spouse were accused of executing the other spouse in a suburban parking lot.
Countless news reports on the incident referred to McKinsey as a man. They stated that Zhang and Chen are accused of killing their “son-in-law.” They described him as a “father of three.”
Without the underlying facts, the “news” outlets have stripped the story of context and added to the absolutely bizarre nature of this incident.
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