- By Brandon Drenon
- BBC News, Washington
April 5, 2023
Updated 30 minutes ago
Image Credit: Twitter/Bob Lee
picture description,
Credits were paid to Bob Lee, who founded the popular Cash App and worked for MobileCoin
The founder of billionaire tech company Cash App, Bob Lee, was stabbed to death near downtown San Francisco on Tuesday, his family said.
Police found a 43-year-old man with stab wounds and treated him before he later died in hospital.
His father, Rick Lee, confirmed that his son – who was also Square’s former chief technology officer – had been killed.
San Francisco officials have been criticized for their response to a spate of violent crime in recent years.
The San Francisco California Police Department said officers responded to reports of a stabbing around 02:35 a.m. local time (10:35 a.m. BST) on Tuesday.
The San Francisco Standard viewed CCTV footage showing Mr Lee walking down a deserted alleyway, appearing to be looking for help.
It also showed Mr Lee stumbling towards a parked car and lifting his shirt to reveal his wound, but the vehicle drives away before Mr Lee falls to the ground.
They found Mr Lee unconscious on the ground in the Rincon Hill neighborhood with two stab wounds to his chest, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, and began providing assistance before taking him to San Francisco General Hospital.
Mr Lee’s father posted a message on Facebook on Wednesday confirming the circumstances of his son’s death.
“I just lost my best friend, my son Bob Lee, when he was killed on the street in San Francisco early Tuesday morning,” Rick Lee wrote. “Thank you to those who have reached out in support.”
Mr Lee lived in Miami, Florida, but he was visiting San Francisco for a leadership summit and staying a few extra nights to see friends, according to BBC affiliate CBS News.
Tim Oliver Lee, Mr. Lee’s brother, also posted on Facebook: “He really was the best of us. I was very fortunate to grow up with him and I feel like I’ve lost a part of myself.”
At the time of his death, Mr. Lee was Chief Product Officer of cryptocurrency company MobileCoin.
“He was a generous, decent human being who didn’t deserve to be killed,” Bill Barhydt, CEO of Abra, a cryptocurrency company, said on Twitter, noting that Mr. Lee was also a father.
Cash App is a smartphone-based payments app that enables person-to-person money transfers and is now worth $40 billion (£32 billion), according to Forbes.
Since launching in 2013, the user base has skyrocketed, reaching seven million monthly active users in 2017 and growing to 30 million in 2020.
Mr Lee’s death has prompted renewed criticism of violent crime in the California city.
Tesla founder and Twitter boss Elon Musk responded to tributes to Mr Lee by saying: “Violent crimes in [San Francisco] is appalling and even when attackers are caught, they are often released immediately.”
Data from 2021 shows that residents there have a 1 in 16 chance each year of being victims of property or violent crime, according to the Hoover Institution, a policy research think tank, making the city more dangerous than 98% of the US -Cities .
Homicides have been a particular concern for San Francisco since the pandemic.
There have been 56 homicides in the city in 2021 and 2022, and preliminary police data shows there have been 12 homicides in San Francisco so far this year.
San Francisco police have yet to identify a suspect in the case, and no arrests have been made in the ongoing investigation.
Brooke Jenkins, San Francisco Attorney, tweeted a headline number and wrote “We do not tolerate these appalling acts of violence in San Francisco”.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed said in a statement that “the murder of Bob Lee is a terrible tragedy” and tried to reassure residents that the city “priorities public safety.”
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