New York Times tech executive shot dead at California sports complex

A New York Times technology executive was shot dead by his elderly Chinese in-laws in a cold-blooded murder in California, the Post’s sources can exclusively reveal.

Jonathan McKinsey, 40, the newspaper’s engineering manager for player experience, was allegedly killed by Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, in the car park of the Dublin Sports Grounds around 3pm on Saturday, police said.

A Times spokesperson confirmed that McKinsey was a victim of the attack and had worked for the newspaper since 2023.

Officers patrolling the area spotted McKinsey with multiple gunshot wounds as emergency responders began receiving a flood of 911 calls.

First responders tried to help him, but he died instantly. Witnesses reported seeing two masked assailants approach McKinsey in the parking lot.

They said the shooters took turns firing bullets at the victim before being quickly stopped by a passing police officer.

Harrowing footage from the scene showed a body lying in the car park in broad daylight, before a couple were placed in the back of a police car.

Zhang, who is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 165 pounds, allegedly carried out the attack alongside his wife, who is only 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 110 pounds, according to Alameda County Sheriff’s Office inmate records.

Although the elderly couple are from the Dublin area, they also have ties to Albuquerque, New Mexico, The Post has learned.

Zhang and Chen were booked into Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of murder. McKinsey had been married to their daughter Candice Jang, the Post can reveal.

According to booking records, the couple is looking at a range of serious charges, including first-degree murder, criminal conspiracy, dangerous discharge of a firearm and child endangerment that could have caused serious injury or death.

McKinsey’s technology career spans nearly two decades, beginning in the late 2000s with hands-on software engineering roles at heavyweights like NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Oracle, as well as a stint in product strategy at Coursera.

In 2018, he made the jump to engineering management at UKG, eventually moving up through management roles at Splunk.

He joined The New York Times in early 2023 as a senior engineering manager for the gaming platform, overseeing the infrastructure for viral hits like Connections and scaling the systems to handle massive increases in traffic.

He then joined the Game Player Experience team as a Senior Engineering Lead, eventually becoming Director of Game Player Experience Engineering in late 2025, where he led a 25-person team responsible for feature innovation and monetization for millions of daily puzzle players.

McKinsey laid the foundation for his tech career at UC Berkeley, where he earned his master’s degree in computer science in 2015.

Nathan Wu, who LinkedIn says worked at UC Berkeley, wrote in a comment on his LinkedIn Sunday evening: “Rip buddy.”

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