Bob Lee, the founder of the multibillion-dollar technology startup Cash App, was fatally stabbed on Tuesday, according to his family.
A 43-year-old guy with stab wounds was discovered by police and treated before he died in the hospital.
His father, Rick Lee, acknowledged the death of his son, who was the former chief technology officer of Square.
In recent years, San Francisco officials have been criticized for their response to a wave of violent crime.
Recent crime statistics indicate that the city is one of the most hazardous in the United States.
‘I lost my best friend’
Tuesday at approximately 2:35 a.m., local police officers responded to allegations of a stabbing. (10:35 BST).
CCTV footage obtained by the San Francisco Standard shows Mr. Lee wandering down an empty alleyway, perhaps seeking assistance.
Mr. Lee is seen walking towards a parked car and lowering his shirt to expose a gash, but the automobile drives away before the tech mogul falls to the ground.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, police discovered Mr. Lee unconscious in the Rincon Hill neighborhood with two stab wounds to his chest, and administered first aid before taking him to the hospital.
Mr. Lee’s father wrote a comment on Facebook on Wednesday stating,
“I just lost my best friend, my son Bob Lee, when he died early Tuesday morning in San Francisco.”
According to BBC’s US partner CBS News, Mr. Lee resided in Miami, Florida, but was in San Francisco for a leadership summit and stayed on to visit friends.
Tim Oliver Lee, brother of Mr. Lee, also stated on Facebook,
“He was truly the best among us. I was so blessed to grow up with him, and I feel as though a part of myself has been lost.”
Mr. Lee was the chief product officer of the cryptocurrency startup MobileCoin at the time of his passing.
Bill Barhydt, CEO of Abra, a cryptocurrency business, said on Twitter that Mr. Lee was a good, decent human being who did not deserve to be slain. Mr. Barhydt also noted that Mr. Lee was a parent.
Forbes estimates that the Cash program, a mobile payment program that enables person-to-person money transactions, is currently worth $40 billion (£32 billion).
Since its inception in 2013, its user base has exploded, reaching seven million monthly active users in 2017 and rising to thirty million by 2020.
The death of Mr. Lee has rekindled concerns about violent crime in the city of California.
Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and CEO of Twitter, responded to tributes to Mr. Lee by stating,
“Violent crime in [San Francisco] is horrific, and even if attackers are caught, they are frequently released.”
According to the Hoover Institution, policy research thinks tank, citizens have a 1 in 16 chance of becoming a victim of property or violent crime each year, making the city more dangerous than 98% of US communities.
Since the epidemic, homicides have been a particular problem in San Francisco.
In 2021 and 2022, there were 56 homicides in the city, and according to preliminary police figures, there have been 12 so far this year.
Police in San Francisco have yet to identify a suspect in this inquiry, and no arrests have been made.
The district attorney of San Francisco, Brooke Jenkins, tweeted a tip line number with the following message:
“We do not tolerate these horrific acts of violence in San Francisco.”
The mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, stated in a statement that “Bob Lee’s murder is a terrible tragedy” and sought to reassure people that the city was “putting public safety first.”
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