New York Times tech boss shot dead in California; elderly in-laws held

Jonathan McKinsey, a 40-year-old New York Times technology executive, was fatally shot on Saturday at a California sports complex, with his wife's parents, Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, taken into custody in connection with the crime. The incident occurred around 3pm at the Dublin Sports Grounds. The New York Times confirmed McKinsey's death and stated that he had been with the organization since 2023.

Zhang and Chen are being held on suspicion of murder, conspiracy, gun misuse, and endangering a child. McKinsey, who joined The New York Times in 2023 after a 20-year career in technology, held various positions at companies such as NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle, Coursera, UKG, and Splunk. He served as a senior engineering manager for the games platform, later leading a 25-member team responsible for features and monetization for the newspaper's puzzle games.

McKinsey earned a master's degree in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2015. A former classmate, Nathan Wu, expressed his condolences on LinkedIn, calling McKinsey "a buddy." Zhang and Chen are described as being of average height and weight, with Zhang standing at 5 feet 8 inches and weighing 165 pounds, and Chen at 5 feet 2 inches and 110 pounds.