Cash App founder dead latest: Bob Lee criticised San Francisco crime before Rincon Hill area stabbing

The outpouring of tributes, memories and anecdotes that have streamed over social media since tech pioneer Bob Lee was stabbed to death tell of a genius engineer, a serial innovator, a loving family man, and, as his nickname Crazy Bob would suggest, someone with a sense of humour.

Friends told how Lee dropped out of St Louis University, Missouri, and through sheer brilliance at computer coding and a determination to improve the lives of others went on to develop digital tools such as Google’s Android and the Cash App that are now used by tens of millions of people each day.

He had a “kaleidoscopic mind” who moved seamlessly between different circles of friends, wrote Joshua Goldbard, the founder and chief executive of MobileCoin, where Lee had worked as chief product officer since 2021.

“Pick a topic and Bob would be right there with you telling you all of the ways he had thought about the idea already,” Mr Goldbard said on Twitter. “He had a way of seeing the world that was enchanting. He was a visionary in so many ways.”

Bob Lee was a much-loved member of the San Francisco tech community, where he was affectionately known as Crazy Bob.

After working as an open source code developer in St Louis, Missouri, Mr Lee moved to San Francisco in his early 20s in 2004 to work as an engineer at Google, according to the San Francisco Standard. There he led a team that developed the first Android app.

Mr Lee was headhunted by Square, becoming its 13th employee, where he helped launch the Cash App and became the payment firm’s first chief technology officer in 2011, a Linkedin profile shows.

After leaving Square in 2014, he invested in several tech startups including Clubhouse, Beeper and Faire, and the female-focused social media and networking company Present. He identified as a “stay at home dad” in an online blog post during this period.

In 2021, Mr Lee joined MobileCoin, a crypto payment firm, as its chief product officer.

Surveillance footage appears to capture Mr Lee approach a parked car clutching one side of his body and bleeding heavily from stab wounds.

The 43-year-old father of two lifts his shirt to show the driver the extent of his injuries, but rather than help, the motorist speeds off.

Those last tragic moments as he stumbled down Main St in San Francisco’s downtown district at 2.30am on Tuesday in search of help were caught on CCTV and viewed by journalists from The San Francisco Standard.

The footage initially shows Mr Lee walking along a deserted sidewalk on Main St with his mobile phone in one hand and holding his side with the other, The Standard reports.

The Cash App founder then crosses at the intersection with Harrison St toward where a white Toyota Camry with flashing lights is parked.

The footage reportedly shows Mr Lee lift up his shirt in a plea for help, and then fall to the ground as the driver pulls away.

Mr Lee then gets back to his feet and starts to retraces his steps along Main St in the direction of the Bay Bridge before collapsing again outside of the Portside apartment building at 403 Main St.

The Standard reported that it witnessed staff members cleaning what appeared to be blood from the side of the building on Wednesday.

The San Francisco Police Department said in a statement that Mr Lee was found with fatal stab wounds in Downtown San Francisco between Soma and the Financial District, a block from Google’s San Francisco headquarters.

Friend and MMA fighter Jake Shields tweeted that Mr Lee appeared to have been the victim of a random mugging in the “good part of the city”.

The tweet caught the attention of Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who offered his condolences and called on San Francisco district attorney Brooke Jenkins to take tougher action against violent criminals.

“Many people I know have been severely assaulted,” Mr Musk tweeted. “Violent crime in SF is horrific and even if attackers are caught, they are often released immediately. Is the city taking stronger action to incarcerate repeat violent offenders Brooke Jenkins?”

Ms Jenkins later tweeted her “sincerest condolences” to Mr Lee’s grief-stricken family and friends.

“We do not tolerate these horrific acts of violence in San Francisco,” she added.

Responding to Mr Musk, she said: “No one who commits a violent crime, or who’s a repeat offender are receiving overly lenient plea deals.”

San Francisco Police said they have not made any arrests, and haven’t provided any details of suspects.

In their statement, the SFPD said responding officers had found a 43-year-old victim with stab wounds: “Officers rendered aid and summoned medics to the scene. The victim was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. Despite efforts by first responders and medical personnel, the victim succumbed to his injuries.”

In some categories, like burglary, crime did go up while Mr Boudin was in office, rising by 45 per cent, though it’s worth noting the DA was also in power during the immense social dislocation of the pandemic.

Critics like Elon Musk also appear to take issue with pre-trial release in California, where those accused of crimes can sometimes pay cash bail to be released until their case is over, or can otherwise by released by diversion programmes.

As The Appeal reports, median bail in California is more than five times the national level, keeping thousands of people in jail despite having not been convicted of a crime because they can’t afford release like their wealthier counterparts. According to research from UCLA, the statewide percentage of unsentenced people in California jail populations has been increasing since 2017.

Some have argued that the singling out of former San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin is unfair, as one local prosecutor like Mr Boudin couldn’t be blamed for a city’s failure to ensure a social safety net.

“As a prosecutor, Boudin could not undo the root causes driving displacement,” the Vera Institute of Justice, a liberal criminal justice reform group, wrote in a post-mortem of the recall effort. “He decriminalized what are commonly referred to as ‘quality-of-life’ crimes, like public camping and public urination. He also sought alternatives to incarceration to address substance use, including investments in diversion programs proven to reduce harm.”

“Those policies drew the ire of people who wanted to police the housing crisis rather than invest in the public housing and support services needed to address it,” the group added.

Rick Lee paid tribute to his 43-year-old son in a Facebook post on Wednesday, a day after after he was stabbed to death in downtown San Francisco at around 2.30am on Tuesday morning.

Mr Lee wrote that the pair had lived together in Mill Valley, California, since the death of his wife in 2019, before relocating to Miami in October last year.

“Bob would give you the shirt off his back. He would never look down on anyone and adhered to a strict no-judgment philosophy,” his father wrote.

Clutching one side of his body where he is bleeding heavily from stab wounds, tech executive Bob Lee appears to approach a parked car in urgent need of medical care.

The 43-year-old father of two lifts his shirt to show the driver the extent of his injuries, but rather than help, the motorist speeds off.

Lee’s last tragic moments as he stumbled down Main St in San Francisco’s downtown district at 2.30am on Tuesday in search of help were captured on surveillance footage and viewed by journalists from The San Francisco Standard.

He was discovered at 2.35am outside a luxury residential building on the 300 block of Main St, near Rincon Hill and the Bay Bridge.

The footage initially shows Lee walking along a deserted sidewalk on Main St with his mobile phone in one hand and holding his side with the other, The Standard reports.

Bob Lee, who was the founder of the multibillion-dollar tech company Cash App, had relocated to Miami and was reportedly staying an extra day in San Francisco where he was stabbed to death on Tuesday.

Lee was the chief product officer of San Francisco-based cryptocurrency startup MobileCoin and an active investor in companies such as SpaceX, Clubhouse, and Figma.

Lee was a much-loved member of the San Francisco tech community, where he was affectionately known as Crazy Bob.

He is survived by two young daughters and his wife Krista.