Bob Lee, a technology executive and investor who founded the Cash App mobile payment service, was fatally stabbed in the street in San Francisco on Tuesday, according to his family.
The San Francisco Police Department said 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 “apparent stab wounds,” who died at a hospital. But KPIX, the local CBS affiliate, reported that Mr. Lee’s friends said he was the victim, which was confirmed Wednesday morning on Facebook by his father, Rick Lee of Miami.
Matt Dorsey, the Democratic San Francisco city supervisor who represents Rincon Hill, a neighborhood near the Bay Bridge, condominiums and corporate offices, said on Twitter that Mr. Lee’s death was “a senseless tragedy that I know is made worse by the fact that there are still no suspects in custody.”
Before Mr. Lee joined MobileCoin in 2021, he was the CTO of payments company Square, which was renamed Block in 2021, and was a software engineer at Google. He was also a startup advisor and had invested in companies like SpaceX and Clubhouse, according to his LinkedIn.
Mr. Dorsey, the San Francisco supervisor, said he had been speaking with police about the stabbing investigation since Tuesday morning. No arrests have been made in what police are calling a homicide.
“I have also heard from many constituents in the area, some of whom have already expressed concerns to me about public safety challenges, and I ask everyone to cooperate with police in their investigation, especially those with access to surveillance video that may help,” Mr. Dorsey said.
At the time of his death, Mr. Lee, 43, was the director of product at MobileCoin, a cryptocurrency startup. MobileCoin founder and CEO Joshua Goldbard confirmed in an emailed statement that Mr. Lee died on Tuesday, but did not give a cause.
Mr. Goldbard said On twitter that Mr. Lee “was like a brother to me” and had a “kaleidoscopic” mind.
“Pick a topic and Bob will be there with you and tell you all the ways he’s already thought of the idea,” Goldbard said.
Condolences to Mr. Lee poured out across social media platforms on Wednesday as the news spread.
He was perhaps best known for his work at Cash App, now owned by Jack Dorsey’s company Block. Mr Dorsey, former Twitter CEO, called Mr Lee’s death “heartbreaking” on the social networking site Nostr. “Bob was instrumental to Square and Cash App,” he wrote.
Design platform Figma CEO Dylan Field said On twitter that he had met Mr. Lee in 2006. “He didn’t care that I was only 14 and we were talking about technology/going crazy about programming,” Field said.
Bill Barhydt, CEO of digital financial platform Abra, said on Twitter that Mr. Lee “was a generous and decent human being who did not deserve to be killed.”
Megan Quinn, a start-up investor, said on Twitter that Mr. Lee was “always encouraging, always optimistic.”
“He was always smiling,” she said. “This is how I will remember it.”
Violent crime rates in some major cities are still reeling from a 2020 spike associated with the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Across the country, crime has been steadily declining for the better part of the last quarter century.
Homicides in San Francisco have risen slightly in recent years since dipping in 2019 to 41 people, the lowest number in nearly 60 years. according to the city. The number of homicides rose to 56 deaths in 2022.
As of April 2, there have been 12 homicides in San Francisco this year, according to the San Francisco Police Department. In the same period of 2022, there were 10 homicides.
susan c beach contributed research.
