New York Times tech executive, 40, killed after his elderly in-laws took TURNS shooting him in Bay Area parking lot, cops say, months after he was arrested for child abuse

A tech executive behind the New York Times’ popular games was allegedly shot dead by his elderly parents-in-law in a brazen broad daylight attack, police say. 

Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, allegedly fatally shot their son-in-law Jonathan McKinsey, 40, in a parking lot at Dublin Sports Grounds in Dublin, California on Saturday. 

McKinsey, the head of engineering for games player experience at the New York Times since 2023, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died at the scene, police say. 

Witnesses reported seeing two masked shooters approach McKinsey in the parking lot and take turns unloading a barrage of shots into him, before they ‘calmly’ walked away, reports the New York Post. 

Images showed the suspects being taken into custody by the side of the road, after they were reportedly flagged down by stunned witnesses to a nearby police sergeant. 

Police have not said what the possible motive may have been for the daylight shooting, with Zhang and Chen booked into Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail and held without bail.

The couple are facing a slew of charges including murder, felony conspiracy, child endangerment, and dangerously firing a gun.  

According to court records cited by the San Francisco Chronicle, last year McKinsey was charged with two counts of misdemeanor child abuse by prosecutors in Alameda County. 

A probable cause declaration said a woman told police that her husband, identified as McKinsey, had struck her six-year-old son in the face with an open hand. 

The woman also told investigators about an alleged prior domestic violence incident in 2018, claiming McKinsey had bruised her by grabbing her left arm. 

In that incident, deputies said they arrived to McKinsey’s home to find a two-year-old child left unattended in an upstairs bedroom while McKinsey had left to go shopping. 

McKinsey pleaded not guilty in both incidents, and had been released on bail on the condition that he complete 12 parenting classes. 

Authorities have not said if they believe the past allegations are connected to McKinsey’s fatal shooting on Saturday, which unfolded around 3pm after the tech executive was confronted in the parking lot of a Dublin Sports Grounds store. 

Witness Assad Razawi told ABC7 that he heard several gunshots ringing out from across the parking lot, before he ‘saw the guy drop to the floor.’

‘(His) head and chest were bloody,’ the witness said of McKinsey.

Another witness added that they then saw a ‘man and a woman walking together and casually walk away from the shooting’ moments later. 

A police sergeant who was driving nearby saw McKinsey laying on the ground, police said, and officers were scrambled to the parking lot. 

Razawi told the San Francisco Chronicle that after witnesses saw two shooters calmly walking away, they were found in a black sedan at a nearby intersection. 

Authorities have not said what led up to the shooting, but have confirmed that the suspects are McKinsey’s in-laws. 

A neighbor of the McKinsey family told the Chronicle that Jonathan had recently moved out of the home he shared with his wife and three children. 

Another neighbor said a detective had knocked on her door asking about the family on Saturday night, hours after McKinsey was shot dead.  

A spokesperson for the New York Times confirmed to the New York Post that McKinsey had been employed as head of games at the company since 2023. 

Before helming the Times’ games platform, McKinsey was engineering manager at Splunk, and he had previously studied at UC Berkeley. 

Zhang and Chen are being held in jail without bail, and their arraignment has been scheduled for Wednesday.