New York Times Games Director Shot Dead in California Park, In-Laws Arrested on Murder Charges

Jonathan McKinsey, 40, director of engineering for New York Times Games, was found shot multiple times in the parking lot of the Dublin Sports Grounds on Saturday, September 26, according to Dublin Police Services. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A Dublin police sergeant driving near the park around 3:08 p.m. spotted a man lying in the parking lot and stopped to investigate. Dispatchers were simultaneously fielding multiple 911 calls about a shooting, police said.

With help from witnesses who stayed at the scene, officers detained two suspects within minutes: Shouyong Zhang, 77, and Shili Chen, 77, a married Dublin couple identified by police as McKinsey's in-laws. Both were booked into Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of murder and are being held without bail, according to jail records cited by The Daily Beast.

Witnesses told CBS News Bay Area that a man and woman were both involved, wearing masks, with the man shooting first and then handing the gun to the woman, who fired as well. Dublin resident Assad Razawi told the San Francisco Chronicle he heard five or six gunshots before seeing McKinsey on the ground bleeding from the chest. Another witness, Kevin Stein, told KTVU, "This place is busy on a Saturday. It's incredible that they'd just do that right in front of everybody."

Jail records reviewed by The Daily Beast and KTVU show the couple 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 those records. Zhang and Chen are scheduled to be arraigned Thursday, October 1, at 9 a.m. at the East County Hall of Justice in Dublin.

McKinsey had worked at the Times since January 2023 after stints at Splunk, Oracle, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, UKG, Coursera and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, according to his LinkedIn profile confirmed by the paper. He held a bachelor's degree from Georgia Tech and a master's in computer science from UC Berkeley.

A year-long legal battle preceded the shooting

Alameda County court records show McKinsey was charged in October 2025 with two misdemeanor counts of child abuse and endangerment. His wife, Candice Jang, told deputies he had struck their 6-year-old son in the face and, separately, described a 2018 incident where he allegedly grabbed and bruised her arm, according to a probable cause statement cited by KTVU. Deputies also found the couple's 2-year-old daughter left unsupervised at home for over an hour, the statement said. McKinsey pleaded not guilty and was ordered to complete 12 parenting classes, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Days after those charges, Jang sought and was granted a domestic violence restraining order against McKinsey. McKinsey filed for his own restraining order against Jang in December 2025 and filed for divorce shortly after, ending a 14-year marriage. A judge initially granted Jang legal and physical custody of the couple's three children under the temporary order, though a judge allowed McKinsey unsupervised public visits last month. The court approved hiring a private child custody evaluator in August, and a family law status conference is scheduled for October 2, according to the Los Angeles Times.

BNO News reported that in his December 2025 filing, McKinsey identified as transgender and accused his wife and her parents of abusing him because of his identity. This claim comes from McKinsey's own court filing and has not been independently verified or addressed by police, who have not named a motive for the shooting and have not said what role, if any, the custody dispute played.

Dublin police said there are no outstanding suspects and no ongoing threat to the public. Detectives are still working to determine what led to the confrontation.

The city of Dublin recorded one homicide a year from 2023 through 2025, according to city crime data cited by The Guardian, which also reported that reported domestic violence incidents in the city rose from 121 in 2024 to 131 in 2025. Thursday's arraignment is expected to be the first point at which prosecutors lay out formal charges and, potentially, an alleged motive.