A New York Times executive was shot dead in a California parking lot by his own in-laws — a 77-year-old couple prosecutors say "lay in wait" before taking turns firing at him, in a killing that exposes the rot behind the same media class that never stops lecturing ordinary Americans about justice and morality.

Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, were charged Wednesday with murder and a stack of special enhancements — including the "lying in wait" allegation that signals premeditation. Prosecutors say the couple killed Jonathan McKinsey, 40, Saturday afternoon at the Dublin Sports Grounds parking lot. They allegedly took turns shooting him. Witnesses captured video of the aftermath. Police arrested the pair within minutes — Dublin's first homicide of the year, solved almost as fast as it happened.

McKinsey headed engineering for games player experience at the Times, where he'd worked since 2023. He was transgender, having transitioned from female to male in 2010. He was also drowning in a brutal divorce and custody fight with his wife, Candice Jang, with whom he shared three children under 10.

Both sides accused each other of abuse. Jang alleged McKinsey hit their six-year-old in the face; McKinsey was charged with two misdemeanor counts of child abuse and was out of custody pending entry into a mental health diversion program. Jang's filings claimed the abuse went further, describing finding their son "curled up, quivering, hiding in the hallway, and crying hysterically."

McKinsey had his own allegations. He claimed Jang beat him with a frying pan, tried to pull medical tubes from his body after surgery, and told him to kill himself because "no one would want to be with someone as f–ked up and transgender like you."

The in-laws' animosity ran deeper still. According to a restraining order filing, Chen berated McKinsey's young son for wearing dresses, calling the child a "disgusting queer" and a "pervert," and hit the boy in the back of the head. When McKinsey begged her to stop, Chen turned on him with the same slurs. Zhang allegedly punched McKinsey in the chest while he was recovering from a double mastectomy.

A family member told the California Post they'd "lay a lot of money" the in-laws killed McKinsey to support Jang's custody bid.

The New York Post led with the "lying in wait" special circumstance and the premeditated nature of the attack. The Mercury News framed the killing as an outgrowth of a "bitter family law dispute" — language that softens what prosecutors allege was a calculated ambush. The Mercury News also gave more space to the ex-wife's abuse allegations against McKinsey, while the Post emphasized the in-laws' history of anti-trans harassment.

McKinsey's family law attorney, Andrea Yah, called the death a "true tragedy" and criticized "one-sided" media coverage, saying the public record reflects a "complicated case."

Zhang and Chen are being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail. Neither appears to have retained an attorney. They face at least 40 years to life if convicted of the enhancements.

A Times executive is dead. Three children have no father. The people who shot him allegedly did it after years of slurs and escalating violence that the courts couldn't contain. The system that was supposed to sort this out in a courtroom failed everyone — and now the same institutions that employ people like McKinsey will decide how the country hears about it.