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 of Dublin Sports Grounds in Dublin, California on Saturday.
McKinsey, the head of engineering for games player experience at the New York Times since 2023, was raced to hospital with multiple gunshot wounds and died at the scene, police say. McKinsey, the head of engineering for games player experience at the New York Times since 2023
Witnesses reported seeing two masked shooters approach McKinsey in the parking lot and took turns unloading a barrage of shots into him, before they were arrested by a passing cop, reports the New York Post.
Images allegedly showed the elderly Chinese couple being taken into custody by the side of the road.
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 on suspicion of murder.
The couple are facing a slew of charges including murder, felony conspiracy, child endangerment, and dangerously firing a gun.
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, police say
Jonathan McKinsey, 40, the head of engineering for games at the New York Times, was fatally shot in a parking lot in California on Saturday
The shooting unfolded around 3pm on Saturday, moments after McKinsey 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.
His daughter Mal 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 other witnesses saw two shooters calmly walking away, and 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 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.
McKinsey was the head of engineering for games player experience at the New York Times 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 the possibility of parole, and their arraignment has been scheduled for Wednesday.
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.
