Bob Lee, a technology executive and investor who was credited with creating the mobile payments app Cash App, was stabbed to death on a street in San Francisco on Tuesday, according to his family. your.
The San Francisco Police Department said it responded to a call about a stabbing in the Rincon Hill neighborhood around 2:35 a.m. Tuesday. Police did not identify the victim, a 43-year-old man with “obvious stab wounds”, who died at hospital.
But KPIX, the local CBS affiliate, report that Mr. Lee’s friends say he was a victim, this was confirmed Wednesday morning on Facebook by his father, Rick Lee of Miami, as well as government officials.
San Francisco District Attorney, Brooke Jenkins, say on Twitter that no arrests had been made in the case as of Wednesday morning. “We do not tolerate these horrific acts of violence in San Francisco,” she said.
Matt Dorsey, the Democratic Party’s San Francisco city supervisor who represents Rincon Hill, an apartment complex and corporate office near the Bay Bridge, say on Twitter that Mr. Lee’s death was “a senseless tragedy that I know is worse than when no suspects are in custody.”
Mr Dorsey said he had been talking with police about the stabbing investigation since Tuesday morning.
“I have also heard from many voters in the area — some of whom have expressed concerns to me about challenges to public safety — and I ask that everyone cooperate with police in their investigation. they, especially those with access to video surveillance can help,” Mr. Dorsey said.
Mr. Lee recently moved to Miami, according to his father’s Facebook post. Rick Lee wrote that he moved in with his son after Bob’s mother passed away in 2019 and they moved to Florida in October. It is not known how long Mr. Lee was in San Francisco during a recent visit. or where he lives.
“Bob will give you the shirt on his back,” his father wrote in a Facebook post. “He will never look down on anyone and adheres to a strict non-judgmental philosophy.”
His brother, Tim Oliver Lee, also posted on Facebook about his brother’s death. “I was so lucky to have grown up with him, and I felt like I lost a part of myself,” he said.
At the time of his death, 43-year-old Bob Lee was the product manager of MobileCoin, a cryptocurrency startup based in San Francisco. He is focused on improving financial systems, giving people more privacy in their transactions and allowing them to send money across international borders without paying high fees, who do working with him, said in a stream of memories and anecdotes about Mr. Lee on social media on Wednesday.
To do so, Mr. Lee has tapped into his deep experience in the tech world. Before joining MobileCoin in 2021, he was the chief technology officer of payments company Square, which was renamed Block in 2021. Here he was instrumental in the creation of Cash App, a The service allows users to send and receive money quickly from their phones.
Mr. Lee initiated the first transaction on the service, sending $4 to Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter and president of Block. Mr Dorsey called Mr Lee’s death “heartbreaking”. on his social networking site, Nostr.
“Bob is an important tool for Square and the Cash App,” he wrote.
IN 2013 payment screenshot, which Mr. Dorsey shared on social media, Mr. Lee can be seen congratulating Mr. Dorsey on the company’s upcoming 4th anniversary. “Mr. Dorsey — come here — I want to see you,” Mr. Lee wrote.
The message illustrates Mr. Lee’s tendency to summon friends.
Joshua Goldbard, founder and CEO of MobileCoin, said: “Everywhere Bob goes, he makes friends. Written. “He did this by being someone who brought people together. He is loved everywhere for his ability to build community.”
While Mr. Lee is perhaps best known for his work on Cash Applications, he is admired by engineers for his work such as a software engineer at Google, where he works on Android, an operating system for smartphones. He is also a startup advisor, investing in companies including SpaceX and Clubhouse, follow his LinkedIn.
Mr. Goldbard said on Twitter that Mr. Lee is “like a brother to me” and has a “kaleidoscope” mind.
“Pick a topic and Bob will be right there with you telling you all the ways he thought about the idea,” says Mr. Goldbard.
The CEO of design platform Figma, Dylan Field, said on Twitter that he met Mr. Lee for the first time in 2006. “He didn’t care that I was 14 and we talked about technology/learned about programming,” said Mr. Field.
Bill Barhydt, CEO of digital finance platform Abra, say on Twitter that Mr. Lee “was a generous man and did not deserve to be killed.”
Megan Quinn, a startup investor, say on Twitter that Mr. Lee is “always encouraging, always optimistic.”
“He was always smiling,” she said. “That’s how I’ll remember him.”
Violent crime rates in some major cities still recovering from a spike in 2020 related to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Across the country, crime has been on the decline for most of the past quarter century.
San Francisco homicides have risen slightly in recent years since falling to 41 in 2019, the lowest number in nearly 60 years, by city. The number of homicides has increased to 56 deaths by 2022.
According to the San Francisco Police Department, as of April 2, there have been 12 homicides in San Francisco this year. During the same period in 2022, there were 10 murders.
Elon Musk, the chief executive of Twitter and Tesla, said he was “sorry to hear” of Mr. Lee’s death and urged the city’s district attorney to do more to prevent violent crime. “Is the city taking stronger action to incarcerate repeat violent offenders?” he wrote in a tweet targeted Brooke Jenkins, district attorney.
Susan C. Beach Contributing research.
