Who Was Jonathan McKinsey? The New York Times Games Engineering Director's Career, Three Children, and Family Life, Including a Custody Dispute – Details & Photos

Behind the headlines surrounding his final days was a life filled with ambitious career moves, deeply personal family ties, and moments shared online that now feel especially poignant. Some of the most revealing details were hiding in plain sight long before tragedy struck.

Jonathan McKinsey's name became tied to a shocking East Bay tragedy in the final days of September 2026. But away from the circumstances of his death was a nearly two-decade technology career, a passion for teaching, three children, and personal posts that now carry an entirely different weight.

Among the glimpses he left behind is one particularly poignant family message — written just weeks before his death.

Jonathan McKinsey's Life Was Taken at a California Park

McKinsey, 40, was fatally shot on Saturday, September 26, 2026, at Dublin Sports Grounds in Dublin, California. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, police and witnesses found him with multiple gunshot wounds shortly after 3 p.m. in the parking lot of the city park, which sits beside Dublin's police department and library.

Video shared with the outlet reportedly showed McKinsey lying behind the open trunk of a car, with blood visible around his head. He was pronounced dead in the parking lot. Witness Assad Razawi told the outlet that he heard five or six gunshots before seeing McKinsey fall. Razawi said a man and woman he believed were connected to the shooting then walked away at a normal pace.

Authorities arrested two suspects just outside the park minutes later, as the suspects reportedly fully complied with police orders. Authorities identified them as 76-year-old Shouyong Zhang and 76-year-old Shili Chen, a married couple who police said were McKinsey's mother- and father-in-law.

They were arrested on suspicion of murder, child endangerment, and conspiring to commit a crime and were being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail. An arraignment was scheduled for Wednesday, while the Alameda County District Attorney's Office said it was reviewing the investigation. Dublin police thanked witnesses and other community members, saying their cooperation was "critical to the swift arrest of the suspects."

Authorities had not announced a motive as of Monday afternoon. That unanswered question is especially significant because, behind the scenes, McKinsey and his wife had spent months locked in an increasingly contentious family dispute.

He Was a Director of Engineering for the New York Times Games

At the time of his death, McKinsey was Director of Engineering, Games Player Experience at The New York Times. His LinkedIn profile presented a career spanning close to 20 years across software engineering, product strategy, management, education, and engineering leadership.

In his "About" section, McKinsey wrote that he had nearly two decades of experience in hands-on technical positions involving software engineering and product strategy. He also said he had more than eight years of people-management experience. His recent New York Times position began in December 2025.

According to the profile, McKinsey led a multidisciplinary engineering organization made up of 22 engineers and three engineering managers across three teams, including front-end, full-stack, backend, iOS, and Android engineers. Before becoming director, his profile listed him as Senior Engineering Manager for Games Player Experience from January to December 2025.

It also listed a previous role as Senior Engineering Manager for Games Platform beginning in January 2023, where he said he led a front-end web and backend API platform engineering organization consisting of 17 engineers and one engineering manager. His approach to leadership appeared to extend beyond job titles.

McKinsey wrote that he believed a leader's job was to build an environment in which team members could "bring their whole selves to work and thrive." He also emphasized transparency, shared leadership, experimentation, and giving people credit for their work. As an engineering leader, he said he pushed teams to build sustainable products while considering testability, maintainability, observability, and security upfront.

His Career Included Splunk, UKG, Coursera, Oracle, and More

McKinsey's professional path stretched well beyond The New York Times. From July 2021 until January 2023, he worked as an Engineering Manager at Splunk. Before that, he spent more than three years with UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group). His profile listed him first as a Staff Software Engineer from February 2018 to January 2019 and later as an Engineering Manager from January 2019 through July 2021.

During that period, he also co-founded McKinsey Learn, a self-employed venture that his profile listed from January 2019 until December 2020. Before UKG, McKinsey spent nearly two years at Coursera as a Product Strategy Manager, from April 2016 through February 2018. He previously worked at Oracle as a Senior Software Engineer from January 2015 until April 2016.

Earlier still, McKinsey worked for Hewlett Packard Enterprise as a Systems Software Engineer II between November 2010 and April 2014. But his professional history started even before that. While attending Georgia Tech, he served as a Head Teaching Assistant from May 2006 until March 2010. He also spent more than two years as a Software Engineer intern at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, from January 2007 through August 2009.

Education and Teaching Were a Major Part of His Life

McKinsey earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology, attending from August 2005 through May 2010 and graduating with honors. His listed activities included serving as a College of Computing Ambassador, College of Computing Mentor, Freshman Seminar Peer Leader, and FASET Freshman Orientation Leader.

He later earned a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, studying there from August 2013 until May 2015. An older professional biography from his time at Ultimate Software described McKinsey as someone deeply interested in the intersection of computer science and education.

The bio said his master's studies focused on that intersection, particularly massive open online courses. It also described his enthusiasm for teaching technology to a broad range of people, from providing digital-literacy education to senior citizens to teaching programming to underrepresented minorities.

McKinsey was said to be especially interested in issues affecting disadvantaged populations. And amid all the technical accomplishments, the bio included a far more personal detail: in his spare time, he enjoyed cooking for his family.

Jonathan McKinsey and Candice Jang Had Three Children

That family eventually became central to a painful legal battle. Public records cited by the Chronicle showed that McKinsey and Candice Jang married in Harris County, Texas, in 2011. The couple had three young children.

By late 2025, however, their marriage had broken down into competing allegations of domestic abuse, restraining-order petitions, criminal proceedings, divorce litigation, and a dispute over how much time McKinsey could spend with the children. The Mercury News reported that the custody case was scheduled to return to court on Friday, October 2.

McKinsey had petitioned for divorce in December 2025. As recently as late August 2026, he was asking the court to expand his visitation. "I miss our children deeply and am pleading with this court to allow me more time with them, and potentially unsupervised time with the children," McKinsey wrote in one filing, according to the outlet.

At that point, his visits were being supervised, and he was seeking to have that requirement removed. Jang opposed that request, writing in her own filing that McKinsey "has proven that he is incapable of controlling his anger and his abuse of our children when left with the children unsupervised." Those remaining allegations were being argued through the courts.

Both Spouses Made Serious Allegations Against Each Other

The custody battle did not involve accusations from only one side. Jang had obtained a domestic violence prevention order after filing for one in October 2025. According to court records cited by the Chronicle, she alleged that McKinsey had physically, verbally, and emotionally abused her and their children for years.

Her filing reportedly described more than a dozen alleged incidents occurring between November 2020 and July 2025. One such incident reportedly involved a claim that McKinsey had struck her six-year-old son in the face with an open hand.

In another alleged incident, Jang said McKinsey pushed their son in February 2022 when he thought the child was playing too rough with his sister, which resulted in injuries. Jang also told investigators about a separate alleged 2018 incident in which she said McKinsey grabbed her arm and left a bruise, and said he had emotionally abused her mother.

Jang wrote, "The abuse that happened over the past 17 years has caused permanent damage to my mental health and physical health." She continued, "I would like a restraining order to protect myself and my three children, as well as my mother from future abuse."

McKinsey faced two misdemeanor charges in Alameda County involving alleged child abuse: cruelty to a child by endangering health and corporal injury to a child. The Chronicle reported that a deputy's declaration said authorities had also once found a two-year-old child unattended in an upstairs bedroom after McKinsey allegedly left to go shopping.

McKinsey pleaded not guilty and had been released from jail subject to conditions that included completing 12 parenting classes, according to the Chronicle.

The Mercury News additionally reported that he had been released on $50,000 bail and was attempting to enter a mental health diversion program. Successful completion would have resulted in the charges being dismissed.

McKinsey Also Accused His Wife and In-Laws of Abuse

McKinsey disputed Jang's account. In December 2025, he sought a restraining order of his own and alleged that Jang had abused him over a period stretching back more than 15 years. His allegations included a claim that Jang struck him with a frying pan in 2013 and that she verbally denigrated their children.

He also made allegations involving Jang's parents. McKinsey was transgender, and according to court documents cited by the Mercury News, he alleged in his petition that Jang's mother, Chen, had directed very harsh anti-LGBTQ+ slurs toward him and one of the children. McKinsey also alleged that Jang mistreated him while he was undergoing medical procedures connected to his transition.

In one allegation, he claimed she tried to pull medical tubes from his body after a procedure. McKinsey further alleged that Jang's father injured his chest while he was recovering from double mastectomy surgery. These claims, like Jang's accusations against McKinsey, were allegations contained in court filings.

Authorities had not established that the marital dispute, custody proceedings, or abuse allegations were the motive for McKinsey's killing.

He Had Recently Moved Away from the Family Home

Neighbors later described a family situation that appeared to have changed considerably in the months before McKinsey's death. One neighbor told the Chronicle that McKinsey had recently moved out of the home he once shared with Jang and their three children. Another neighbor said a detective came to her door looking for information on the night after the shooting.

Residents described their Dublin community as generally quiet and safe, though some said neighbors often kept to themselves. A woman who described herself as a friend of Jang's was seen arriving at the home Sunday evening to sit with the family. Meanwhile, the sports grounds roughly two miles away still showed remnants of crime-scene tape.

Years Earlier, McKinsey Wrote About Welcoming a Daughter

One older post provides another personal glimpse into how McKinsey publicly spoke about his family. In a 2021 LinkedIn post, McKinsey reacted to the anti-Asian spa shootings in Atlanta, writing that the attack saddened him but had not surprised him. He explained that he had grown up in Atlanta for most of his life and attended college there.

"America has a problem with race," he wrote. "We need to confront this reality together and address it." Then came a deeply personal detail: McKinsey said that two weeks after the shootings, he and his wife welcomed a "new little mixed Asian girl" into the world.

"My daughter wasn't breathing and I saw people of all colors rushing to help her," he wrote. "America is just like my little girl. I'm calling on all of you to save America." He ended the post by arguing that while people cannot control the color of their skin, they can control their actions, adding, "Let's celebrate our differences instead of fearing them."

A Rare Recent Photo Showed McKinsey Smiling in What Became His Last Post

Then there is one of McKinsey's more recent public images. On September 8, 2026 — less than three weeks before his death — a Facebook account bearing his name updated its profile picture. The image, which became his last post, showed McKinsey smiling during what appeared to be a casual outing. But underneath that photo was something far more personal.

Beneath the Facebook photo, a commenter identified as William Finney II left McKinsey a message about his parents, his wife, and his children.

The message read:

"Jon, hope everything is going well. Hope you can visit us when you have some free time. Mom and Dad love you so much and miss you. Hope everything goes well with you and Candice and the kids."

Seen in isolation, it was simply a parent checking in; seen after McKinsey's death — and against the backdrop of the divorce, custody fight, and legal proceedings that had consumed much of his final year — the words offer a quiet glimpse at the family relationships surrounding a much more complicated public story.

McKinsey's professional pages documented titles, teams, degrees, and almost 20 years of work in technology. His personal posts revealed something less formal: a father talking about his daughter, a man who once said he loved cooking for his family, and, finally, a son whose parents were telling him that they loved and missed him.