Transgender New York Times executive who was shot dead ‘by his in-laws’ abused BOTH his young children and left them with head injuries, wife claims

The transgender New York Times tech executive who was allegedly shot dead by his elderly in-laws abused his children, his wife has claimed.

Jonathan McKinsey, 40, was shot multiple times and killed in a parking lot at Dublin Sports Grounds in Dublin, California on Saturday.

His in-laws Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, have been arrested on multiple charges, including murder, after police say they took turns shooting him.

The brazen attack comes nearly one year after McKinsey’s wife, Candice Jang, filed a domestic violence prevention order against her spouse, a biological female who transitioned to become a man, court records show.

Jang accused him of physically, verbally and emotionally abusing her and their three young children, according to the protection order filed in Alameda County Court in October 2025 and obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Jang claimed he hit their six-year-old son ‘at least 4-5 times’ and once pushed him so hard that his head hit the hardwood floor and was left with a bump and abrasions, the court filing said.

She claims McKinsey pushed the little boy after believing he was being too rough while playing with his sister, the documents said.

He also hurled verbal abuses at the boy, calling him names such as ‘a*****e’ and ‘jerk,’ Jang said.

She claimed she suffered abuse at McKinsey’s hands over a 17-year period and detailed more than a dozen alleged attacks between November 2020 and July 2025 alone. 

Jang alleged that in December 2022, McKinsey pulled their young daughter so hard that her head struck the sharp corner of a baby gate.

‘The abuse that happened over the past 17 years has caused permanent damage to my mental health and physical health,’ Jang wrote in the court filing. 

‘I would like a restraining order to protect myself and my three children, as well as my mother from future abuse.’ 

The protection order was granted by the judge, records show. 

In court documents obtained by Mercury News, Jang alleged he hit their son in the face during an argument over LEGOs, leaving a ‘very large bruise the shape of a handprint’ on his face.

She also claimed McKinsey had previously been violent with her in 2018 when he grabbed her wrist hard enough to leave bruises.

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

McKinsey was charged with cruelty to a child by endangering health and corporal injury to a child, both misdemeanors, and was freed on a $50,000 bail.

At the time of his murder, he had also been trying to enter a mental health diversion program, which would have resulted in the charges being dropped upon completion, according to Mercury News.

In subsequent court documents, an attorney for Jang wrote that McKinsey ‘is simply prone to domestic violence and child abuse,’ noting that the incidents she cited in her previous complaint were ‘far from the first time’ he ‘committed physical violence against me or my family members.

‘Due to his violent and negligent history, our children are simply not safe when left unsupervised and in his care,’ Jang wrote in a court filing last month.

But McKinsey claimed in his own court filings that Jang was the one who had been abusive for more than 15 years.

In 2013, he claimed she beat him with a frying pan, according to the court documents. He also accused Jang of verbally denigrating the children. 

He alleged that Chen, Jang’s mother, was verbally abusive to one of the couple’s young children, raising objections over the child’s clothing. 

McKinsey further accused his in-laws of making derogatory remarks about his gender transition. 

He claimed Chen directed anti-LGBTQ+ slurs at him and the child, referring first to the child and then to McKinsey as a ‘disgusting queer’ and a ‘pervert.’ 

The New York Times tech executive further accused Jang of being abusive during medical procedures related to his transition, claiming that at one point she tried to pull medical tubes from his body shortly after he had his breasts removed, according to the Mercury News.

He also alleged that Jang’s father, who was not named in the filing, punched him in the chest while he was recovering from the double mastectomy. 

McKinsey ultimately filed for divorce from Jang in December, and the couple continued to litigate child custody, with a court hearing scheduled for Friday, Mercury News reports.

But it remains unclear whether Zhang and Chen may have been motivated to kill McKinsey over the allegations of abuse or disagreements over his gender identity.

‘Part of our investigation is looking for motives from all angles as well as looking at the histories and relationships of everyone involved and associated with the victim and suspects,’ Captain Michael Campos, of Dublin Police Services, told the New York Post.

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.

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.

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.

Zhang and Chen have since been booked into Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail and are being held without bail on charges including murder, felony conspiracy, child endangerment and dangerously firing a gun. 

Zhang and Chen’s arraignment has been scheduled for Wednesday. 

McKinsey had been employed at the New York Times since 2023. He was previously an engineering manager at software company Splunk and he studied at UC Berkeley.