In-Laws Arrested in Fatal Dublin Shooting

A Dublin police sergeant driving near the sports complex spotted a man lying on the ground in the parking lot of the Dublin Sports Grounds at about 3 p.m. on Saturday, September 26, 2026. As the sergeant stopped, 911 calls came in simultaneously. Officers found 40-year-old Jonathan McKinsey with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Dublin Sports Grounds are a frequent hub for youth sports in this East Bay suburb of roughly 72,000, set along the junction of Interstates 580 and 680. Shellsea Gomez had been at the complex only minutes earlier. "We were just right over here having a picnic like 10 minutes before this incident happened," she said. "I don't really know exactly what happened, but you're coming and putting a lot of kids in danger and that's just not right."

Trung Le, another Dublin resident, put the same worry into words. "You're obviously worried about everybody's safety… you were just there, your kids were just there," he said.

Police obtained surveillance footage showing the couple carrying out the shooting. Three witnesses identified Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, a husband and wife, as the shooters and helped police locate the pair nearby. Zhang and Chen, both 77 and residents of Dublin, fled the parking lot afterward in a black Honda Civic driven by Chen. Police stopped the car as it traveled westbound near Civic Plaza and arrested them shortly after the shooting. Officers later found a firearm in Chen's possession. A bystander, Tracy A., shared a photo of the elderly husband being handcuffed in the park.

Zhang and Chen were the parents of Candace Jang. Their son-in-law was Jonathan McKinsey, director of engineering for The New York Times’ games player experience. McKinsey had married Jang in 2011. The marriage ran for 14 years before the divorce filing. By then the couple shared three young children, and those children stood at the center of a custody dispute. McKinsey and Jang had also exchanged restraining orders as the marriage came apart.

A restraining order is a civil court order that restricts contact when one person alleges abuse or the threat of harm. Court papers from the divorce put competing claims of danger on the record. McKinsey addressed the risk to the children in a declaration filed in that case. “I truly believe that she would hurt or even kill them if she believed there was any possibility of me having the children in my custody and care.” Zhang and Chen were therefore the maternal grandparents of the three children. The custody dispute and the exchanged restraining orders gave the shooting a private history the public scene in the sports-complex parking lot did not show.

Prosecutors charged Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen with first-degree murder. The complaint carried special allegations of lying in wait, personal and intentional discharge of a firearm, great bodily injury, conspiracy to fraudulently obtain money, and child abuse. Lying in wait means the killing was alleged to have been planned in advance and timed for a chosen moment. Zhang admitted to shooting McKinsey, according to the police report. Chen invoked her Miranda rights.

Legal analyst Steven Clark described the planning the case appeared to show. "There appears to be a tremendous amount of premeditation that went into this… defendants went there to track down this individual," he said. "It's going to be important to look at all of the text messages and emails between these parties and reverse engineer exactly where things went so wrong."

Michael Cardoza framed a different test for the same facts. "Bottom line question — would reasonable grandparents, knowing what these grandparents knew, do what they did? If so, it's a voluntary manslaughter," he said. The special circumstance raised the prospect of life without parole.

Zhang and Chen were held without bail at Santa Rita Jail. Their arraignment was set for Wednesday, September 30, 2026, at the East County Hall of Justice before Judge Diane S. Meier. Conviction on the murder charge and its special allegations carried a possible sentence of life in prison without parole.

Andrea Mah, an attorney representing McKinsey’s family, spoke after the filing. “I am deeply saddened by his death. This is a true tragedy, particularly for the three children now left without a father. I trust that our justice system will hold those responsible for Mr. McKinsey’s senseless death accountable.”