A transgender New York Times games executive who was allegedly killed by his elderly in-laws had previously angered them by letting his son wear girls dresses, court documents revealed.

Jonathan McKinsey, 40, was shot dead in the parking lot of a Dublin Sports Grounds store in Dublin, California on Saturday. Police arrested his in-laws Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, on suspicion of murder. 

Witnesses alleged that two masked shooters approached McKinsey in the parking lot and taking turns firing into him, before ‘calmly’ walking away. The elderly couple were arrested soon after. 

The motive for the shooting remains under investigation, with court documents showing McKinsey was in the midst of a divorce from his wife, Candice Jang, and he had previously been hit with child abuse charges. 

But according to a restraining order McKinsey filed against Jang in 2023, a visit Chen made to their home to watch their children led to a hostile interaction between the father and his in-laws, reports the California Post. 

McKinsey, who was the head of engineering for games player experience at the New York Times since 2023, claimed in the filing that Chen became upset when she saw McKinsey’s son Wyatt asking to wear his sister Alexis’s dresses. 

McKinsey, a biological woman who had surgery to become a transgender man, said he told his mother-in-law it was a ‘phase’ his son was going through, but he alleged that Chen responded by berating him and his son. 

He alleged that Chen called the young child a ‘disgusting queer’ and a ‘pervert’, and then called him the same names as she admonished him for being transgender, the filing said. 

Jonathan McKinsey, 40, a transgender New York Times games executive who was allegedly killed by his elderly in-laws, had previously angered them by letting his son wear girls dresses, court documents revealed

Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, are accused of murdering their son-in-law in a parking lot at Dublin Sports Grounds in Dublin, California on Saturday

McKinsey alleged in his restraining order filing that when he begged Chen to stop berating his son, his mother-in-law then turned her anger toward him. 

‘She blamed me for Wyatt wanting to wear his sister’s dresses and told me to get out of ‘her house’ even though we were in the home owned by Candice and I,’ McKinsey wrote in the filing. 

He added that he attempted to make his wife hire outside help to prevent Chen from ever watching their children again, but he claimed Jang refused. 

McKinsey also filed allegations of abuse from Jang in their relationship, including claiming that she tried to push him into suicide, according to his court filings.

According to McKinsey, his wife told him he should take his own life because ‘no one would want to me with someone as f***ed up and transgender like me.’

McKinsey had also claimed in 2013 that his wife beat him with a frying pan, and claimed Jang denigrated their children.  

Jang went on to file her own restraining order against McKinsey last year, alleging he had ‘threatened to kill me and my parents.’

McKinsey, who had worked in games tech for the New York Times since 2023, was in the midst of a divorce from his wife when he was killed on Saturday 

Elderly Bay Area couple Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, allegedly took turns gunning down their son-in-law in a brazen broad daylight attack on Saturday, police say. Zhang is seen being taken into custody 

McKinsey had previously faced two counts of misdemeanor child abuse, following a police report in 2023 accusing him of slapping their six-year-old son in the face and leaving a ‘large bruise in the shape of a handprint’ on his face.

Jang 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.

The bail was conditional on him completing 12 parenting classes. McKinsey pleaded not guilty in both incidents.

Jang’s restraining order and domestic violence protection order against McKinsey was granted last year, leading McKinsey to respond with requesting a domestic violence protection order against her and filing for divorce.

He since had sought more time with the three children, noting that he had been limited to two hours of supervised visits per week since last fall, Alameda County court documents show.

McKinsey had previously faced two counts of misdemeanor child abuse, but had claimed in court filings that his wife – who he was divorcing – had been abusive to him 

Witnesses said the elderly couple walked calmly away from the scene of the shooting, and they were arrested after being tracked to a black sedan (above) at a nearby intersection 

McKinsey made the allegations that Chen had directed anti-LGBTQ+ slurs at him and at one of their children in his petition for a protection order. 

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 underwent a procedure, 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 a double mastectomy.

At the time of his killing, he was out on bail and had 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.

The killing occurred a week before a hearing was scheduled in McKinsey and Jang’s divorce case.  

It remains unclear whether Zhang and Chen may have been motivated to allegedly 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 Post.

After McKinsey was shot dead on Saturday, a neighbor told the San Francisco Chronicle that McKinsey had recently moved out of the home he shared with his wife and three children.

Zhang and Chen’s arraignment has been scheduled for Wednesday. The couple are facing a slew of charges including murder, felony conspiracy, child endangerment and dangerously firing a gun.