Elderly in-laws accused of killing New York Times games engineer, police say
Police investigate a crime scene in Dublin, Calif., Sept. 27, 2026. (KGO)
An elderly couple was arrested in connection with the shooting death of their son-in-law, a director for the New York Times’ games division, over the weekend in California, police said.
While court documents detailed a long a history between Jonathan McKinsey and his in-laws, Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, and a divorce between McKinsey and his wife, investigators didn’t immediately disclose a motive behind Saturday’s shooting.
McKinsey, 40, of Dublin, California was found by an officer in the parking lot of a sports complex Saturday afternoon with multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene, the Dublin Police Services said in a statement.
Eyewitnesses helped officers track Zhang and Chen, both 77, and they were arrested on suspicion of murder, police said. They were set to be arraigned on their charges Wednesday morning, the Alameda County District Attorney said.
Attorney information for the suspects wasn’t immediately available.
The New York Times said in a statement that McKinsey was director of engineering for the games department and joined the news company in 2023.
The investigation is ongoing, police said.
Court documents detailed a nearly year-long divorce battle between McKinsey and his estranged wife Candice Jang, that included accusations of abuse and domestic violence.
The documents show that Jang obtained a domestic violence order of protection against McKinsey in October 2025 after he was arrested for allegedly striking their son.
McKinsey was charged with two counts of child abuse and pleaded not guilty, according to court documents. His trial was pending before his death, and he had a pre-trial hearing schedule for October, according to court documents.
McKinsey, who was transgender, claimed his wife framed him in the incident and accused Jang and her parents of abuse and using anti-LGBTQ slurs against him during arguments in a restraining order filed in December 2025, court documents said.
He filed for divorce that same month, court records show.
Jang denied her husband’s allegations in court filings.
The couple, who had two other children, were living separately at the time of his death, according to court documents.
Jang’s attorney didn’t immediately respond to ABC News for comment.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia arrives with his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura and his attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg (L) at U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on Dec. 22, 2025, in Greenbelt, Maryland. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice has asked an appeals court to reinstate the criminal human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
In May, a federal judge granted Abrego Garcia’s motion to dismiss the case, finding that the federal government failed to rebut Abrego Garcia’s “presumption of vindictiveness.”
“Because the presumption of vindictiveness remains unrebutted, the indictment must be dismissed,” U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw wrote in May.
In a brief filed Monday, attorneys for the DOJ urged an appellate court to overturn Judge Crenshaw’s May ruling, arguing that the decision to indict Abrego Garcia was supported by “legitimate reasons.”
“The decision to seek an indictment against Abrego Garcia for human smuggling was made by career prosecutors based on the evidence, the law, and their firm belief that there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Abrego Garcia had committed the offenses charged,” the DOJ said in a press release. “The indictment and prosecution of Abrego Garcia in the Middle District of Tennessee was not vindictive, and the evidence before the district court established that it was not.”
Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported in March of last year to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to a fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he denies.
He was brought back to the U.S. last June to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee, after which U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis released him from ICE detention while he awaited trial.
In May, Judge Crenshaw highlighted the involvement of high-ranking DOJ officials in the case, pointing to public statements made by then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to conclude that the government could not justify its sudden shift from wanting to deport Abrego Garcia to prosecuting him.
In its filing Monday, the DOJ argued that Blanche’s public comments in an interview regarding the deportation case “do not reflect a vindictive motive.”
“At a minimum, nothing in his interview supports an inference that the United States pursued charges ‘solely’ to retaliate against Abrego for his civil suit,” the DOJ argued. “The district court’s contrary reasoning — which did not even address the full quotation — is illogical and clearly erroneous.”
The criminal charges in Tennessee stem from a 2022 traffic stop disclosed in an April 2025 press release issued by the Department of Homeland Security, which touted a “bombshell investigative report” alleging that Abrego Garcia was a suspected human trafficker. He was not charged or arrested during the traffic stop, which lasted for more than an hour.
“Instead of investigating the November 2022 traffic stop to identify who was responsible for the human smuggling, Blanche started the investigation to implicate Abrego,” Judge Crenshaw wrote in May. “He did so to justify the Executive Branch’s decision to remove him to El Salvador.”
Crews have suspended the search for a missing 5-year-old girl who was swept away in the ocean in Laguna Beach, California. (KABC)
(LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.) — Crews have suspended the search for a missing 5-year-old girl who was swept away in the ocean in Laguna Beach, California, the Coast Guard said on Thursday, as the mayor called the situation “heartbreaking.”
The girl went missing at about 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday near Treasure Island Beach, Laguna Beach officials said. She was with her mother and a sibling near the shoreline when the three of them were swept into the ocean by powerful water conditions, the city officials said.
Bystanders ran into the ocean and were able to rescue the mother and one of her children, but the 5-year-old remained missing, officials said.
The search and recovery effort continued on Wednesday, with rescuers working “under challenging and hazardous ocean conditions, including large surf, powerful currents, and limited underwater visibility,” city officials said.
The search ended Wednesday evening after rescuers worked more than 30 hours and covered more than 90 square miles, the Coast Guard announced.
“Our deepest condolences go out to the child’s family and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time,” Capt. Stacey Crecy, commander of Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles-Long Beach, said in a statement. “Suspending a search is an extremely difficult decision.”
“This is one of the most heartbreaking incidents I have witnessed during my time serving this community,” Laguna Beach Mayor Mark Orgill said in a statement. “Our hearts go out to the young victim’s family, friends, and all those affected by this tragic loss.”
“I am incredibly proud of the dedication and professionalism demonstrated by our Marine Safety, Fire, and Police personnel, as well as every agency that assisted in this effort,” the mayor added. “These men and women put themselves in harm’s way, entering the same dangerous ocean conditions in an attempt to bring this young girl home to her family.”
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Lonnie Bunch speaks during an event at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History on Feb. 20, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch is stepping down from his position, the institution said Tuesday, after seven years of leading the world’s largest museum, education and research complex.
“I have fought for as long as I can. I love this country and I love the Smithsonian and I will always work to defend our more perfect Union,” Bunch told ABC News in a statement, confirming his resignation on Tuesday.
Bunch’s resignation comes amid mounting attacks against the Smithsonian from the Trump administration, which has accused Smithsonian leadership of presenting a “radical view” of American history and threatening to withhold federal funds and support.
“It is with very mixed emotions and heartfelt gratitude that I announce my retirement from the Smithsonian,” Bunch said in a statement. “I have spent nearly half of my life working at and being part of the Smithsonian family, and what a privilege it has been. There is no place like the Smithsonian—it has been one of the great loves of my life, and I am extraordinarily proud of what we have accomplished together. I leave with pride and sadness, gratitude and joy, and with enormous confidence in the people who will carry this remarkable institution forward.”
Bunch, who has been a part of the Smithsonian Institution for the past 38 years, was named secretary in June 2019, making him the first African American and first historian to serve in the role. Bunch did not reference the ongoing attacks from the White House in his parting statement.
“It is time for my next chapter, a chapter that will allow me to continue to protect the integrity of the Smithsonian and to champion the importance of a history that illuminates and celebrates the complex story of our nation,” Bunch said. “The Smithsonian has been a reservoir of science, history, art and culture that freely allows the public to find knowledge, understanding, clarity, education, hope and a bit of joy. I will always carry the Smithsonian within me.”
Bunch reflected on his legacy in a July interview with ABC News to mark America’s 250th birthday.
Asked about the White House’s criticism of the Smithsonian, Bunch said, “I think that for me it’s — I’m always open to any criticism, any comments. We want to be in the best institutions we can be.”
He added, “But I feel very strongly that a nation has to understand the totality of its past, the complexity of its past, in order to understand greatness of a nation.”
In July, the White House released a scathing 162-page report accusing the Smithsonian Institution of engaging in “extreme political activism” and presenting “a radical view of American history.”
The report, which was published by the White House Domestic Policy Council, took aim at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH), accusing its leadership of adopting “an ideological framework that no longer treats the American story as a shared national inheritance to be taught or celebrated, but as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens.”
The report came amid a review of the Smithsonian that was launched in response to President Donald Trump’s March 27, 2025, executive order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
The executive order directed Vice President J.D. Vance, in consultation with the president’s advisers on domestic policy, “to remove improper ideology” from Smithsonian institutions, arguing that materials that cast America in a “negative light” have no place in federal cultural institutions.
Amid escalating attacks from the White House, NMAH Director Anthea Hartig became the first Smithsonian official in July to testify on the issue before Congress.
In her testimony, Hartig pushed back against the White House July 4 report, asserting that the museum “does not take sides” in political debates.
“Our work is governed by the Smithsonian standards of scholarship, accuracy, independence, and nonpartisanship,” Hartig said in her opening remarks before a House Subcommittee on Delivering Government Efficiency. “The museum does not take sides in America’s political debates. We preserve and document the evidence of American life in all of its breadth, so that the public can encounter the past and draw their own conclusions.”
Bunch, who met with Trump at the White House last August, has repeatedly affirmed the Smithsonian’s “independence” from political influence.
Referencing his conversations with Trump in a September 2025 letter to the institution’s employees, Bunch underscored the independence of the Smithsonian, saying it was “paramount.” He also told employees that the institution remains committed to telling the “American story” and “will always be, a place that welcomes all Americans and the world.”
The Smithsonian is overseen by a 17-member governing body, known as the Board of Regents.
Franklin D. Raines, chair of the Board of Regents, said board members will announce an acting secretary as they begin a national search for Bunch’s successor.
“I have had the honor of working with Lonnie Bunch for more than two decades, first when he was the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and ultimately when he became the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian,” Raines said in a statement on Tuesday. “I have seen firsthand how Secretary Bunch’s leadership of our 21 museums and the National Zoo has illuminated the nation’s past, opened pathways to new knowledge and powered creativity and innovation.”
ABC News’ Kyra Phillips and John Santucci contributed to this report.
