Grandparents Accused Of Taking Turns Shooting Their Daughter’s Husband, Who Was Accused Of Abusing Their Grandkids

An elderly California couple is accused of taking turns shooting and killing their daughter’s estranged husband, a New York Times engineering director who was locked in a bitter custody battle with their daughter and had been accused of abusing their grandchildren.

Jonathan McKinsey, 40, was fatally shot Saturday afternoon in the parking lot of Dublin Sports Grounds, about a block from the city’s police department, according to ABC7. His wife’s parents, Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, were arrested on suspicion of murder.

Witnesses said the couple took turns firing at McKinsey, according to KTVU. According to CBS News Bay Area, witnesses said the man shot McKinsey first and then handed the gun to the woman, who also fired, and both were wearing masks.

Assad Razawi said he was leaving a market on Dublin Boulevard when he heard gunshots from the parking lot and then saw McKinsey collapse. “I saw the guy drop to the floor: head bloody and chest bloody,” Razawi said, according to ABC7. His daughter, Mal Razawi, said her father described the man and woman strolling away from the scene as if nothing had happened.

According to Dublin Police Services, a sergeant driving near the park at 3:08 p.m. spotted a man lying in the parking lot and stopped to investigate as 911 calls about a shooting began pouring in. McKinsey was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers located the couple nearby within minutes with help from witnesses. Police Capt. Miguel Campos thanked the community, saying “their cooperation was critical to the swift arrest of the suspects,” according to the Pleasanton Weekly.

According to the Pleasanton Weekly, police listed murder, conspiracy, willful discharge of a firearm with gross negligence and child abuse among the counts against both suspects. The couple is being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail and is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday morning, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which reported that the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing the case.

Police have not released a motive and said the circumstances leading to the shooting remain under investigation, according to CBS News Bay Area. It was Dublin’s first homicide of the year, according to the Mercury News.

The New York Times confirmed McKinsey was its director of engineering for New York Times Games, according to ABC7. He had worked for the company since January 2023 and was based in Dublin, according to CBS News Bay Area. According to KTVU, his LinkedIn profile lists a master’s degree in computer science from UC Berkeley, a bachelor’s degree from Georgia Tech, and previous work as an engineering manager at Splunk.

The shooting came amid a bitter custody dispute between McKinsey and his wife, Candice Jang, who accused him of physically, verbally, and emotionally abusing her and their three young children. The couple married in 2011 in Harris County, Texas, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Their children are 3, 5, and 7, according to The Week.

According to the San Francisco Standard, the couple separated Oct. 17, 2025; Jang sought a protective order six days later, and McKinsey filed his own on Dec. 11. McKinsey filed for divorce in December. According to KTVU, a temporary restraining order gave Jang legal and physical custody of the children, but last month a judge allowed McKinsey unsupervised visits with them in public. The custody case was set to return to court Friday, according to the Mercury News.

In court documents, Jang alleged McKinsey hit their son at least four or five times and once pushed him so hard that his head struck the hardwood floor, leaving a bump and abrasions, according to VT. She also said he struck the boy in the face during an argument over Lego toys, leaving a “very large bruise the shape of a handprint,” according to the Mercury News. Jang also claimed McKinsey grabbed her wrist in 2018 hard enough to bruise her.

An attorney for Jang wrote in later filings that McKinsey “is simply prone to domestic violence and child abuse,” according to VT.

When deputies went to the family’s home to investigate, they found the couple’s youngest child, then 2, alone upstairs; McKinsey had gone shopping and left the child unsupervised for more than an hour, KTVU reported. Prosecutors charged him with two misdemeanors: cruelty to a child by endangering health and corporal injury to a child. He was released on $50,000 bail and was seeking entry into a mental health diversion program that would have led to the charges being dismissed, according to the Mercury News. McKinsey pleaded not guilty, and KTVU reported that he was ordered to take 12 parenting classes, citing the San Francisco Chronicle.

In an August custody filing obtained by the California Post, Jang raised concerns about a book McKinsey gave the children about a mother’s death, writing that he “omits the context that makes the conduct frightening to me,” according to The Week.

McKinsey made allegations of his own. He had transitioned from female to male in 2010, and in his restraining order request he accused Jang of abusing him for more than 15 years, including an alleged 2013 attack with a frying pan, according to the Mercury News. He also accused her of verbally belittling their children.

According to the New York Post, citing records obtained by the Mercury News, McKinsey claimed Jang tried to pull medical tubes from his body during his transition. He also alleged that Zhang punched him in the chest while he was recovering from a double mastectomy in 2010, according to The Week, citing The New York Times.

McKinsey further alleged that Chen directed slurs at him and one of the couple’s children, calling them a “disgusting queer,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. According to The Week, he said the insults came after he allowed his son to wear a dress.

Steven Clark, a legal analyst, said the case “has all the aspects of a deeply personal revenge type killing,” according to ABC7. Clark said whether the grandparents had tried to stop the alleged abuse, and believed they had no other recourse, could factor into the case, though he stressed that people cannot take the law into their own hands. According to NBC Bay Area, Clark expects investigators to lean heavily on electronic records in searching for a motive.

Attempts to reach Jang were unsuccessful, and attorneys for McKinsey, Jang and the children in the divorce case did not respond to the San Francisco Standard. KTVU could not reach the couple or determine whether they had lawyers.

The park is typically crowded on weekends. “There were kids and families, just like you see now,” Dublin resident Kevin Stein said, according to SFist. The city of Dublin said it was deeply saddened by the killing and that “incidents like this are rare in our community,” according to KTVU.