A New York Times tech executive died after being shot multiple times in a California parking lot by his elderly Chinese in-laws, who police booked on suspicion of murder.

Jonathan McKinsey, 40, was found with multiple gunshot wounds around 3 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot of Dublin Sports Grounds in Dublin, California. First responders tried to help him. He died at the scene.

The Post reported that his parents-in-law, Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, were arrested nearby and booked into Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of murder.

Witnesses described two masked assailants who approached McKinsey and took turns firing. A passing officer made the arrest as 911 calls came in and patrol units spotted the wounded man.

McKinsey had served as the New York Times head of engineering for games player experience and led a 25-person team. A Times spokesman confirmed he was the victim and that he had worked for the newspaper since 2023.

In-laws face murder and gun charges after swift arrest

Fox News reported that Zhang and Chen, of the Dublin area, were taken into custody on suspicion of murder with no outstanding suspects and no continuing public threat listed. Motive remained under investigation.

Booking records from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office list charges that include first-degree murder, felony conspiracy, dangerously firing a gun, and child endangerment that could have caused major injury or death. Zhang is listed at 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds. Chen is listed at 5-foot-2 and 110 pounds.

Officials credited bystanders for the rapid capture.

Officials said:

"DPS thanks the witnesses and community members who assisted responding officers; their cooperation was critical to the swift arrest of the suspects."

McKinsey had been married to the couple’s daughter, Candice Jang. The pair also had ties to Albuquerque, New Mexico, beyond their Dublin-area base.

Sudden deaths of New Yorkers far from home keep drawing hard scrutiny, including cases like the New York grandmother found dead near Las Vegas under troubling circumstances.

McKinsey built a long engineering career before the Times

McKinsey earned a master’s in computer science from UC Berkeley in 2015. His résumé included work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle, Coursera, UKG, and Splunk before he joined the Times in early 2023 as senior engineering manager for the games platform. In late 2025 he moved up to director of engineering for games player experience.

Colleagues marked the loss online. Nathan Wu, whose LinkedIn profile listed UC Berkeley ties, wrote late Sunday:

"Rip buddy."

Violent cases with New York connections continue to surface in the news cycle, from the days-long search that ended with newlywed Dominick Bianchi found dead upstate to older murder trials still debated in public.

Questions remain after the parking-lot ambush

Police have not released a stated motive. Charging papers cited in coverage list child endangerment alongside the murder counts, yet public details have not clarified whether a child was present or how that count applies. Absolute calendar dates for the Saturday shooting and Sunday social posts were not laid out in initial reports beyond the relative timing.

Readers who follow high-profile crime dockets will recognize the pattern of early bookings followed by slow disclosure, as in the KJ Biermann case with its expanding allegations after an initial arrest.

New York murder history still draws attention years later, including the 1991 case in which Sunny Hostin has described serving as a holdout juror.

What is already clear is the core sequence: a 40-year-old Times engineering director left dead in a public sports-complex lot, two 77-year-old in-laws booked on suspicion of murder and related gun and endangerment counts, and a community assist that helped officers lock the scene down fast.

When family ties end in a parking-lot shooting, the public has every right to demand a full accounting, clean charging decisions, and a court process that puts the victim first.