A transgender father pleaded for more time with his children. Days before a custody hearing, he was killed

Before a transgender New York Times games engineer was fatally shot, he was engaged in a bitter custody battle with his estranged wife, court records show. His in-laws have been taken into custody.

Police in Dublin, California, arrested Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen on suspicion of murder and conspiracy to commit a crime following the Saturday death of Jonathan McKinsey, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Witnesses told CBS News that the couple, McKinsey’s in-laws, took turns shooting him Saturday in the parking lot of Dublin Sports Grounds. Police have not publicly established a motive.

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Court records reported by the Bay Area News Group detail the dispute between McKinsey and Candice Jang, Zhang and Chen’s daughter. A custody hearing was scheduled for this Friday. Both parents had accused the other of abuse and challenged the other’s ability to care for their children.

“I miss our children deeply and am pleading with this court to allow me more time with them, and potentially unsupervised time with the children,” McKinsey wrote in a court filing. Jang wrote that McKinsey was “incapable of controlling his anger and his abuse of our children.” She alleged that he struck one of their children in the face during an argument over Legos, leaving a bruise. She also alleged that he grabbed her wrist hard enough to bruise it.

Alameda County prosecutors charged McKinsey with two misdemeanors, including cruelty to a child by endangering health and corporal injury to a child. He pleaded not guilty. At the time of his death, he was seeking admission to a mental health diversion program that could have led to the dismissal of the charges if he completed it.

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McKinsey also accused Jang of abuse, alleging that she struck him with a frying pan and repeatedly denigrated their children. In a separate filing, he alleged that Chen called one of the children a “disgusting queer” and called him a “pervert” during a dispute over the child’s clothing. He alleged that Jang’s father punched him in the chest while he was recovering from a double mastectomy and that Jang tried to pull medical tubes from his body after a procedure related to his transition.

Jang also alleged that McKinsey had threatened to kill her and her parents. In a filing cited by the California Post, she described being disturbed when McKinsey gave their children a book about a girl whose mother dies. “Given his prior threats against my life, I found the choice deeply disturbing and frightening,” she wrote.