People attend the East County Courthouse in Dublin, where Shili Chen and Shouyong Zhang are arraigned Wednesday for the fatal shooting of their son-in-law. Authorities found Jonathan McKinsey fired multiple shots Saturday at the Dublin sports field.
Security cameras and several witnesses saw an East Bay couple in their 70s shoot their son-in-law together Saturday afternoon in the crowded parking lot of a suburban park, police said.
The suspects, identified as Shili Chen and Shouyong Zhang, carried out the fatal shooting with “a blatant disregard for public safety,” Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputy Shawn Pearson wrote in a probable cause statement filed in court Wednesday.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office charged Chen and Zhang, both 77, with murder in connection with the shooting death of Jonathan McKinsey, a 40-year-old technology director at The New York Times who was involved in a bitter divorce with the suspects’ daughter over custody of their three children.
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Prosecutors alleged the couple waited for McKinsey at the Dublin Sports Grounds, a popular park with sports fields and a playground, before intentionally firing a gun, according to court records.
Chen and Zhang appeared before a judge at the East County Court in Dublin on Wednesday afternoon, communicating with the court through a Mandarin translator. Neither defendant pleaded guilty at Wednesday’s hearing. It is common for defendants in homicide cases to take weeks to plead guilty because of the seriousness of the allegations.
Zhang, who was represented by his attorney Jennie Otis, waived a formal reading of his rights and charges.
Chen, wearing a blue medical mask, listened through an interpreter as the charges against her were read out in court. She
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Shortly after 3 p.m. Saturday, a Dublin police sergeant found McKinsey face down in the parking lot, blood pooling around his head from multiple gunshot wounds, as several people called 911 to report a shooting. McKinsey was pronounced dead at the scene.
Witnesses said they saw the shooters calmly walk away from the scene. Bystanders then pointed the sergeant toward two people leaving the parking lot in a black Honda Civic, according to the probable cause statement.
Authorities conducted a “high-risk stop” and arrested Chen, the driver, and Zhang, the passenger, Pearson wrote. Video captured by a witness showed officers ordering the suspects to walk backwards with their hands raised before handcuffing and searching them.
Police said they found a firearm in Chen’s possession and later located a second firearm in the suspects’ vehicle.
Three witnesses identified Chen and Zhang as the shooters, Pearson said.
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The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office has charged Shouyong Zhang, left, and Shili Chen, both 77, with murder in connection with the shooting death of their son-in-law.
The shooting was also captured in surveillance footage showing Zhang and Chen shooting McKinsey “in concert,” according to the statement.
Zhang admitted to shooting the victim during an interview with investigators, Pearson said. Chen invoked his Miranda rights. Both were detained at Santa Rita Prison in Dublin.
If convicted of the charges, both defendants could face life in prison without the possibility of parole, prosecutors said.
On Tuesday evening, Dublin police were at the residence where McKinsey lived with his wife, Candice Jang, and their children, although a spokesperson declined to provide further details, citing the ongoing homicide investigation.
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Investigators have not yet revealed the motive, but court records indicate long-standing turmoil and conflict within the family.
McKinsey was going through a contentious divorce that involved an escalating battle over custody and visitation rights, according to court records.
In late August, a court granted McKinsey unsupervised visitation with their children, ages 3, 5 and 7, for two hours twice a week, over his wife’s objections.
Jonathan McKinsey, a 40-year-old Dubliner and New York Times employee, was fatally shot on Saturday.
Jang had full custody of the children and had repeatedly tried to block McKinsey’s efforts to see them more often, alleging the children were afraid of their father, records show.
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McKinsey was arrested and charged with two counts of child abuse last October after Jang accused him of slapping their eldest son in the face. He pleaded not guilty and completed court-ordered parenting classes, records show, but the case was still pending.
Shortly after the arrest, Jang filed for a restraining order against her husband, alleging that she and their children had suffered physical, emotional and verbal abuse at the hands of McKinsey. The request also sought protection from McKinsey for his mother, Chen, according to court records.
Jang alleged in court that McKinsey insulted their son and hit him four or five times during the Christmas vacation in 2024, once leaving a bright red palm mark. The mother called Dublin police in 2023 when McKinsey allegedly pushed their son in the side of the head as the children fought over a toy, “causing his neck to snap to the side”.
The restriction order was granted and is expected to remain in effect until next December. Jang also got full custody of the children, while McKinsey moved into a studio.
Meanwhile, McKinsey filed for a concurrent restraining order against his wife and a divorce last December, alleging that Jang was the abusive spouse in their marriage. He said Jang only fed their children late in the day and sometimes left them home alone. Jang disparaged the children, yelling at them, McKinsey wrote in the request for a restraining order.
McKinsey also alleged that he endured years of abuse from Jang, whom he described as controlling and jealous. She beat him with a frying pan in 2013, forced him to eat a dead cockroach, isolated him from friends and family and, during a fight, told him that “no one would want to be with someone as ‘fucked up and transgender’ like me,” McKinsey said.
McKinsey also said in court documents that his in-laws mistreated him because he was transgender. On one occasion in 2023, he said, Chen used homophobic slurs against McKinsey and his son, who at the time wanted to wear his sister’s dresses.
Zhang punched McKinsey in the chest while recovering from a gender-affirming double mastectomy more than a decade ago, McKinsey said in court documents.
As the divorce continued through court, McKinsey sought to spend more time with his children, according to court records.
“I do not pose a threat to our children,” he wrote in a statement about a month before his death. “I miss our children deeply and I beg this court to allow me more time with them.”
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