Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen chose murder over the law

By Daniel Okafor · Reporting from New York · September 28, 2026

By shooting their son-in-law during a custody dispute, Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen traded a dangerous father for imprisoned grandparents and destroyed the family they intended to save.

Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen are wrong. They decided that the law was too slow to protect their grandchildren, so they replaced the gavel with a gun. By executing their son-in-law in a public parking lot, they did not save a family. They destroyed the only thing that separates a community from a crime scene: the belief that the state holds the monopoly on violence.

A casual walk from the scene

The shooting happened on September 26, 2026. Jonathan McKinsey, 40, was in the parking lot of the Dublin Sports Grounds. According to ABC7 Los Angeles, the lot sits about a block from the police department.

Assad Razawi was leaving a nearby market when he heard the shots. He saw McKinsey drop to the floor. He said the man's head and chest were bloody. Razawi then saw a man and a woman walking together. He said they casually walked away from the shooting.

Dublin Police Services officers found McKinsey dead at the scene. He had been shot several times. Within minutes, police located Zhang and Chen in a black sedan at a nearby intersection. Pleasanton Weekly reports that the couple, both 77, were arrested on suspicion of murder and conspiracy.

Why the courts were not enough?

The facts show a home in ruins. The Press Democrat reports that McKinsey and his wife, Candice Jang, were locked in a bitter custody dispute. A court hearing for that dispute was set for the Friday before the murder.

The record of violence was long. In late 2025, prosecutors charged McKinsey with cruelty to a child and corporal injury to a child. Jang alleged that McKinsey hit one of her sons in the face. She said the hit left a very large bruise the shape of a handprint.

McKinsey was freed on $50,000 bail. He was attempting to enter a mental health diversion program. Jang wrote in a court filing that the children were not safe in his care. She said he had committed physical violence against her and other family members.

The conflict ran deeper than child safety. McKinsey transitioned from female to male in 2010. He alleged that Shili Chen called him and his child a "disgusting queer" and a "pervert." He claimed Jang beat him with a frying pan in 2013.

McKinsey worked as the Director of Engineering for New York Times Games. While he managed digital games for a global institution, his personal life was a series of restraining orders and police visits.

They chose a purge over a trial

The Murder of the Romanovs shares the same mechanism. In 1918, Bolsheviks killed the imperial family to clear the path for a new political order. Zhang and Chen operated on the same logic. They viewed McKinsey as a threat to the order of their grandchildren's lives. They believed the only way to secure a future for the children was to execute the father.

Zhang and Chen did not act out of a sudden heat of passion. They targeted McKinsey deliberately in a parking lot. They waited until the legal system was in motion, then decided to end the motion themselves.

The defense will likely argue that the couple acted to prevent further child abuse. They will point to the handprint bruise and the child endangerment charges. But the law does not grant a license to kill based on a pending custody hearing. When citizens decide which laws to follow and which to ignore, the law ceases to exist.

Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen committed a crime to stop a crime. They believed that the death of one man was a fair price for the safety of two children. In doing so, they left those children with a different trauma: the knowledge that their grandparents are murderers. They traded a dangerous father for imprisoned grandparents. The facts prove that the couple did not protect their family; they simply finished the job of destroying it.

Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen chose murder over the law

A casual walk from the scene

Why the courts were not enough?

They chose a purge over a trial

Sources