Police Say NY Times Executive Gunned Down By His Elderly In-Laws In Broad Daylight

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.

00:00:02
Speaker 2: It is Tuesday, September 29th, and a shocking crime out of the Bay Area in California. A broad daylight shooting and killing of a man at a youth sports complex. And it gets even more shocking than that. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. I say robes more shocking given who the suspects now are. And also, this victim is tied to... Robes, one of the most popular sections of one of the most popular news outlets in the world. The game section of the New York Times. Robes, this story has a little bit of everything.

00:00:44
Speaker 3: It really is.

00:00:45
Speaker 4: I don't think I've ever seen a story quite like this in my life. professional career. Yeah, we're talking about a New York Times executive. He's 40 years old. His name is Jonathan McKenzie. And as you pointed out, yeah, he was the director of engineering for the New York Times Games.

00:00:59
Speaker 3: You know, Wordle, that thing that so many of us go to.

00:01:02
Speaker 4: I actually even have a group chat with my girlfriends where we just play Wordle all day and share with each other.

00:01:10
Speaker 3: how well we did. So yes, he was a.

00:01:13
Speaker 4: Very popular editor on one of probably the most popular sections of the New York Times. Gunned down in broad daylight by his elderly in-laws. Yeah, you heard us right. 76 years old. His mother-in-law and his father-in-law took turns, correct? They each shot him in front of witnesses. Seemed like they didn't try to hide it, weren't trying to get away with it.

00:01:42
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know exactly how two 76-year-olds plot a getaway, but the story here has to do with Jonathan McKenzie is the name. This is happening out in the Bay Area, Dublin, California in particular. If you're familiar with the East Bay, it's about 25 miles southeast of Oakland. So it's in that area. And Ronald, what we're talking about, it's hard to describe. I say it's hard to describe, but a lot of people... you'll be familiar with something like this.

00:02:09
Speaker 1: This happened at the Dublin Sports Grounds.

00:02:12
Speaker 2: Robes, this is just one of these multipurpose, huge sports complexes that has, I don't know, has fields on the outside, has picnic areas on the outside, tables and grills, and we've seen places like this. Robes, this is a place that's bustling with children and families, certainly on a Saturday at 3 o'clock when this happened.

00:02:31
Speaker 4: Yes, so this is crazy because 911 calls started coming in around the same time an officer called Spotted a man lying in a parking lot. And yes, the witnesses directed police straight.

00:02:43
Speaker 3: To the suspects.

00:02:45
Speaker 4: And yes, the witnesses said that both were wearing masks and that they won. The man shot McKinsley first and then handed the gun to the woman who then also shot him. So literally, they they said they each took a turn basically shooting him.

00:02:59
Speaker 2: This makes, you can imagine how disturbing of a scene this could be if you're talking about families all around. Again, folks, a Saturday at 3 o'clock in the Bay Area, middle of the afternoon, this is taking place. So there were several witnesses who say they saw this all go down. Gunshots were ringing out. So these two didn't get far. They were spotted, or at least witnesses pointed in the direction of or pointed out that these are the folks who did it. So Shuyang Zhang and Sheely Chinn. both 76 years old. Those two are the parents of Jonathan McKinsley's wife. This man, according to authorities robed, was shot and killed in broad and public daylight by his in-laws, his mother and father-in-law. That is a headline that that will certainly get your attention, Robes. What in the hell? Now look, anybody, and you might be saying to yourself, and somebody will make a joke about this somewhere, the relationship with the in-laws.

00:04:05
Speaker 1: Rose, I ain't quite heard one like this.

00:04:09
Speaker 4: No, this is like something, nothing I've ever heard before, and especially given the ages of the in-laws, just the fact that they're 76 years old, we're willing to whatever ended up happening to them in terms of going to jail. prison for the remainder of their lives it was worth it to them they weren't trying in the sense they weren't trying to get away with it because they chose to shoot him in broad daylight obviously this wasn't something they were trying to secretly do or get away with there there was anger and passion and it was almost like yeah they wanted to share in the responsibility of taking him.

00:04:43
Speaker 1: Out But you know what?

00:04:53
Speaker 2: You said sharing the responsibility. It's almost like they wanted to share in the killing.

00:04:58
Speaker 1: Yes.

00:04:59
Speaker 2: Like they wanted to share in being responsible. Like, oh, let me get my turn is another way to possibly look at that, Rose. But that is disturbing. What in the hell possessed two 76-year-old people to track this guy down, Rose, essentially? Figure out where he is and to make the move there. This is our opportunity. They had masks on. So that suggests to some degree there was planning and they wanted to try to get.

00:05:23
Speaker 1: Away with it.

00:05:25
Speaker 3: That also is bizarre.

00:05:26
Speaker 4: Then if you want to get away with it, why do it in such a public space in front of so many folks?

00:05:31
Speaker 1: You can't get any more public than this.

00:05:32
Speaker 4: No.

00:05:33
Speaker 1: On a Saturday, no less.

00:05:35
Speaker 3: It doesn't make any sense. Now, look, the obvious.

00:05:38
Speaker 4: motive you would point to and we'll get into all of that in just a moment at least what police believe because there is no official motive as of yet but obviously your mind would go immediately to the fact that these are two parents who are defending their daughter in some way or defending their grandchildren in some way that they felt like they needed to do something to this man to protect their family that would be the only thing that would make any kind of sense looking at the story from outside.

00:06:03
Speaker 2: It might be the only thing that makes a sense uh makes sense for a defense as well Robes, you can almost hear that coming out.

00:06:10
Speaker 1: And we're going to.

00:06:12
Speaker 2: Share some of the details that have come out about where the family was, the divorce that's going on, and some of those dynamics. But Robes, we have seen arguments be made. What if this elderly couple is protecting someone? What if this elderly can't send them to prison? There will be people that come to the defense of this once we tell you some of these details that might actually, Robes, would you suggest come to the defense of these two elderly folks?

00:06:35
Speaker 4: Yes, I think that if you're a parent out there and you're listening and you start to hear what is being described, what was happening potentially inside this house, inside this family, you might.

00:06:47
Speaker 3: Understand why two parents.

00:06:50
Speaker 4: say to themselves, we're going to take matters into our own hands and he's going to pay for what he's done to our daughter and to our grandchildren. And you can maybe understand why they felt the way they did. Obviously, you would never justify taking an action like this. This is not justifiable at all, but maybe understandable.

00:07:11
Speaker 1: I wonder, we have seen a lot of cases here lately.

00:07:14
Speaker 2: And if that I guess I'm thinking about Lindsey Clancy here, first of all, but we have seen several where people are able to make some kind of argument for why give that person a break. Like they're not fully responsible because of this thing, because of that thing. You know what I'm thinking about also? A lot of the death row cases we've covered. This person was abused. They grew up a certain way. You should give them a little mercy. And I just wonder, my head immediately went to that. And you've seen their mugshots.

00:07:43
Speaker 3: Oh, yes.

00:07:45
Speaker 4: These look like sweet old grandparents.

00:07:47
Speaker 3: I mean, that is what they potentially were.

00:07:50
Speaker 1: I didn't see that when I saw the pictures.

00:07:52
Speaker 4: Oh, you didn't? No.

00:07:52
Speaker 3: They looked angry.

00:07:53
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah.

00:07:54
Speaker 2: Because the first thing, elderly Asian couple. The first thing in my mind was not those pictures.

00:08:00
Speaker 3: Oh, well, yes.

00:08:02
Speaker 4: It looked like two people who had just been arrested for murder, for sure. I mean, they didn't look happy. They looked very upset. They looked very solemn and serious. I will say that much.

00:08:11
Speaker 1: But.

00:08:12
Speaker 4: I mean, look, by all accounts, based on how they did it and where they did it, this was something that they just, I can't imagine they cared that much about what happened to them, that they were more intent on following through with what they wanted to do rather than worry about what was going to come next.

00:08:30
Speaker 2: Well, stay here, folks, because what's coming next here, we will explain what is a complicated and nasty family history. Court hearings that were upcoming, divorces that had been going on, domestic violence, restraining orders.

00:08:47
Speaker 1: It's all here.

00:08:57
Speaker 3: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ.

00:08:59
Speaker 4: We are talking about a brazen middle of the day execution of a 40 year old New York Times executive. His name was Jonathan McKenzie, and he was shot in broad daylight multiple times, according to police. by his 76-year-old mother-in-law and father-in-law. Those two are now behind bars being held without bond, but there is a lot of messy twists and turns in this family dynamic that led to this brazen shooting. But yes, McKenzie was married to the suspect's daughter, Candace Jang, and they had been married since 2010, so they've been married for about 15 years now. But they were going through a messy, contentious divorce with a lot of domestic violence allegations, child abuse allegations, all of that circling around them.

00:09:54
Speaker 2: And it is the first question you hear that in-laws have killed their.

00:10:00
Speaker 1: Son-in-law.

00:10:02
Speaker 2: You, the first thing you think is like, what was going on in that family? What did he do to their child is the first thing you think. And you go through some of this stuff, both sides, at least according to the court records that are out there have accused each other of domestic violence. Um, on the side of McKenzie, at least, Robes, was charged with misdemeanors and two incidents having to do with the kids. In one, he allegedly hit one six-year-old in the face. In another case, left a two-year-old home alone. Now, he defended himself in that case with a two-year-old, saying that his wife actually set him up, actually didn't tell him that the child was upstairs, so that he could leave and that she could report him. Like, that kind of stuff probes nasty back and forth in this case. Now, as far as the domestic violence allegations, he claims that his wife hit him in the head with a frying pan at one point. Another point, broke a mirror over his head. In that incident, he ended up having to have stitches in his hand. In another incident, I don't know how this came about, forced him to eat a cockroach. So what we're saying, folks, this isn't just run-of-the-mill fighting for custody of kids in a regular-type place. fighting for money divorce stuff.

00:11:16
Speaker 3: This is extra.

00:11:17
Speaker 4: No, and McKenzie, by the way, is described as a transgender man. And he's accused his wife and he had accused his in-laws of basically attacking him or abusing him because of his identity. So yes, we're talking restraining orders being filed. He said that his mother-in-law called him a pervert and a monster. He says his father-in-law punched him in the chest while he was recovering from a double mastectomy surgery in 2010 while he was transitioning.

00:11:47
Speaker 3: So this goes back.

00:11:48
Speaker 4: If you talk about that type of violence was going on in 2010 and now 15 years later, these two elderly folks shoot him in a parking garage with witnesses. It's just, it's so sad to think that that type of contention was going on for that long.

00:12:07
Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned something interesting there.

00:12:08
Speaker 2: He's been a part of this family for a long time, 15 plus years, you could argue. Who knows how long they might have been together or dating, whatever, before that. But Robes, they're 76 now, but 15 years, 61 was a much younger, stronger man and woman. But that anger was still there. Like the anger, if you were mad enough to do that to somebody 15 years ago, that's been building and boiling and boiling.

00:12:32
Speaker 1: For a long time, Robes.

00:12:35
Speaker 2: And according to authorities, it came to a head last weekend in Dublin.

00:12:38
Speaker 1: They are held right now, Robes.

00:12:40
Speaker 2: It doesn't appear they are going to be getting out of jail anytime soon. They do have a hearing set for tomorrow. Do I have that right?

00:12:47
Speaker 4: Yes.

00:12:48
Speaker 1: I do believe their first hearing. Yes, tomorrow. We will see them. What are they going to say in court to this one?

00:12:56
Speaker 2: You got witnesses that saw it to the point, Robes, they actually saw.

00:13:01
Speaker 1: Both of them pull the trigger. You have witnesses that saw both of them do this.

00:13:07
Speaker 3: Hand the gun over. Now your turn. Now my turn.

00:13:09
Speaker 4: It's like all the rage that they'd been feeling for more than a decade just came out in that moment. But it's just so sad. You often see there are custody cases and divorce hearings. People, of course, resort to maybe behavior they wouldn't have otherwise. But this is just beyond the pale. I have never heard of anything quite like this in the middle of of a very public place, your anger spilling out to the point where, yes, two 76-year-old grandparents are behind bars and facing murder charges.

00:13:43
Speaker 2: I just want to get this one on your radar, folks. It's a shocking one out of the Bay Area. We will, or you should, expect to hear a lot more about this in the coming days and weeks. But for now, I am TJ Holm. On behalf of my dear Amy Robach, we'll talk to you all soon.