The first pictures of an elderly couple accused of taking turns to shoot their son-in-law to death have been released.
The body of Jonathan McKinsey, a 40-year-old director of engineering for New York Times Games, was discovered by police in Dublin - a city around 35 miles from San Francisco.
McKinsey’s father-in-law, Shouyong Zhang, and mother-in-law, Shili Chen, both 77, have been charged with murder and booked into the Santa Rita Jail, Dublin police said.
New details have also emerged on the background to the case, which involves competing claims of abuse involving McKinsey and his wife Candice Jang.
Court records obtained by CNN said the couple married around 2012 and shared three children but had been living separately. McKinsey, who was a transgender man, was killed a week before a hearing was scheduled in their divorce case.
In a filing for a restraining order obtained by The New York Times, McKinsey had accused his wife and her family of transphobic abuse.
The 40-year-old alleged that, back in 2010, Zhang punched him in the chest after he underwent a double mastectomy. McKinsey also claimed that Chen dubbed both him and his son as a “pervert” and a “monster” after the youngster tried on dresses.
He further alleged that his wife had hit him in the head with a frying pan during one altercation and forced him to eat a cockroach, The Times added.
Conversely, in a restraining order obtained by The Mercury News, Jang alleged her estranged partner hit one of their sons during an argument over Legos, among other accusations. Jang alleged he left a “very large bruise the shape of a handprint” on his son’s face after striking the boy.
Jang later told authorities McKinsey had grabbed her wrist back in 2018, leaving bruises, the documents say.
“Due to his violent and negligent history, our children are simply not safe when left unsupervised and in his care,” Jang wrote in one court filing, reviewed by the outlet.
Documents viewed by The San Francisco Chronicle revealed that McKinsey pleaded not guilty to two counts of misdemeanor child abuse last year.
The two charges included one count of cruelty to a child by endangering health and another count of corporal injury to a child, according to court records obtained by The Mercury News.
McKinsey tried to enter a mental health diversion scheme around the time of his killing, which would have resulted in the charges being dropped if he finished the scheme.
Authorities confirmed McKinsey’s in-laws were arrested near the scene, shortly after a Dublin Police Services sergeant found his body at the Dublin Sports Grounds just after 3 p.m. on September 26.
Witnesses told CBS News Bay Area that a masked man shot the victim before handing the gun to a masked woman, who also opened fire.
