A transgender New York Times games executive who was allegedly killed by his elderly in-laws had previously angered them by letting his son wear girls dresses, court documents revealed.

Jonathan McKinsey, 40, was shot dead in the parking lot of a Dublin Sports Grounds store in Dublin, California on Saturday. Police arrested his in-laws Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, on suspicion of murder. 

Witnesses alleged that two masked shooters approached McKinsey in the parking lot and taking turns firing into him, before 'calmly' walking away. The elderly couple were arrested soon after. 

The motive for the shooting remains under investigation, with court documents showing McKinsey was in the midst of a divorce from his wife, Candice Jang, and he had previously been hit with child abuse charges. 

But according to a restraining order McKinsey filed against Jang in 2023, a visit Chen made to their home to watch their children led to a hostile interaction between the father and his in-laws, reports the California Post. 

McKinsey, who had been the head of engineering for games player experience at the New York Times since 2023, claimed in the filing that Chen became upset when she saw McKinsey's son Wyatt asking to wear his sister Alexis's dresses. 

McKinsey, a biological woman who had surgery to become a transgender man, said he told his mother-in-law it was a 'phase' his son was going through, but he alleged that Chen responded by berating him and his son. 

He alleged that Chen called the young child a 'disgusting queer' and a 'pervert', and then called him the same names as she admonished him for being transgender, the filing said. 

McKinsey alleged in his restraining order filing that when he begged Chen to stop berating his son, his mother-in-law then turned her anger toward him. 

'She blamed me for Wyatt wanting to wear his sister's dresses and told me to get out of "her house" even though we were in the home owned by Candice and I,' McKinsey wrote in the filing. 

He added that he attempted to make his wife hire outside help to prevent Chen from ever watching their children again, but he claimed Jang refused.

McKinsey also filed allegations of abuse from Jang in their relationship, including claiming that she tried to push him into suicide, according to his court filings.