Cash App Founder Bob Lee Stabbed to Death in Upscale San Francisco Neighborhood
Surveillance camera footage obtained by The San Francisco Standard shows Lee’s final minutes.
I have been reporting on the staggering escalation of crime in California, which has become so dire that new terms have been created to describe the acts of theft and violence.
In San Francisco, the situation is grim enough that its voters decided to vote out a George-Soros-backed district attorney. It hasn’t helped, as a CNN crew’s van was robbed practically in front of a security guard hired to protect it.
Now it appears nobody is truly safe in that city. Case-in-point: Bob Lee, a technology executive who founded the mobile payment company Cash App, was stabbed near the upscale Rincon Hills area of San Francisco.
Bob Lee, a technology executive who founded the mobile payment company Cash App and previously worked at Square, died Tuesday after he was stabbed near downtown San Francisco, according to his family.
San Francisco police said officers responded to a report of a stabbing around 2:35 a.m. Tuesday. The officers found a 43-year-old man with apparent stab wounds. He was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and died later, police said.
Authorities did not name the man; Lee’s father and brother identified him as the victim.
No arrest has been made in the case and San Francisco police have not released any suspect details.
Surveillance tape shows Lee struggled to find help after he was stabbed.
Surveillance footage reviewed by The Standard shows Lee, who had already been stabbed, walking up Main Street away from the Bay Bridge at around 2:30 a.m. Lee crosses the intersection at Harrison Street and walks up to a parked white Camry with its hazard lights flashing.
Lee then lifts his shirt—as if to show the driver his wound and ask for help—and falls to the ground after the car drives away, the footage shows. He gets up and walks back toward the Bay Bridge before falling to the ground again outside an apartment building called the Portside.
At some point, Lee dialed 911 and repeatedly screamed for help, saying he needed to go to the hospital, according to the records reviewed by The Standard. Lee made the call at 2:34 a.m. and police arrived on the scene less than six minutes later.
Lee was unconscious when officers found him on the ground, police said.
San Francisco residents are currently evaluating exactly how awesome it really is to live there.
I dont know if Ill ever stop having such complicated feelings about living in Sam Francisco https://t.co/DYUOl6Y3X3
— Jackie Chu (@jackiecchu) April 5, 2023
People are now looking to the new district attorney for relief.
Elon Musk was among those commenting on Lee’s murder, and asked the San Francisco district attorney, Brooke Jenkins, what she is doing to ‘incarcerate repeated violent offenders’.
Musk said, in response to a tweet expressing sorrow at Lee’s death: ‘Very sorry to hear that. Many people I know have been severely assaulted. 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?’
Sadly, California chalks up another “slash and dash” death.
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Seth Rogen’s take: “It sucks you got stabbed, but SF is not some shithole city. It’s called living in a big city. As far as big cities go it has a lot going for it.”
In a burst of cosmic irony, the weapon used in the attack turns out to be the “cool knife” left in Rogen’s car in 2019 by an anonymous car thief.
Is this really his take or are you being flippant?
If so, he should get scorched for that take!
He was paraphrasing Mr. Rogen’s take on the constant car burglary by window smashing.
Correct… Rogan was saying man up and enjoy the city… there are shortcomings but don’t complain.
Sure cuz it only costs you know hundreds of dollars to replace broken glass in your car but replacing your Life’s a little more difficult
This city desert makes you feel so cold /
It’s got… so many people but it’s got no soul /
And it’s taking you so long /
To find out you were wrong /
When you thought it held everything…
Sooner or later the govt of these blue Cities will reach a decision point on whether their Cray Cray progressive policies are more important than the safety of Citizens and the financial status of the City coffers. The program for these blue City progressives is that the taxpaying, productive Citizens get to decide on a similar choice. Is it worth enduring the crime, homeless pop, declining basic City services, bad schools and general dysfunction just to say you live in or HQ your business in that City?
Major businesses leaving for the safety of their employees might eventually do it, but that could be too late for that city.
Note that relocation to safer locations might normally increase the population and seats controlled by Republicans in the House – except that the Dems can just import more illegals to Blue places losing population (as House seats are allocated on the basis of actual population).
Obviously it isn’t just SF. There are plenty of blue Cities where lefty progressives and their insistence upon unworkable policies that they feel virtuous in implementing have already begun a rapid decline. At some point they will go past the point of return and hollow out like Detroit.
The absurd tax rates on the middle and upper middle class productive Citizens will drive even more away until they are left with an upper class, pseudo aristocracy and a lower class with very little in between. That’s not sustainable long-term. Then the calls will come for Federal bailout of over promised pensions and empty operating budgets driven past the crisis point by the same folks tearing out what makes a community work.
San Fran has a liberal culture. Scalping. Were there vacuums, forceps involved?
That said, go Green, sequester his carbon ashes for climate progress.
His estate will now have to pay inheritance taxes so the city looks at this as a win
Even though he was stabbed and crime is high in San Francisco notice the reluctance of passersby to help this man. This is the logical consequence of Leftism: People become indifferent and callous to the suffering of others.
Or, they are pragmatic. If they got the attacker to stop, the rescuer would no doubt be arrested for something.
Or jumped and carjacked.
Hopefully San Francisco is not as rotten as New York City when it comes punishing innocent people who deign to protect themselves from criminals (and it’s important to make that distinction because all of New York is not as rotten as that city).
Fortunately he was murdered with a knife… heaven forbid a gun was used. Knives are so humane. On the up side… if the murderer is caught his punishment will be less…. no added penalty for a gun.
If the murderer is found, he’ll probably be released without bail.
Why was he out at 2:30 am? Doesn’t he know that’s “MAGA Country” and he is subject to being splashed with bleach and have a miniature newse* put around his neck?
What? Huh?! Chicago? Wrong city! Jussie?
Oh. Never mind…
I go to te active self-protectionwebsite every morning first thing, because I usually learn something, but more importantly it gets me in a proper mind-set to face the world. The basic advice they give is to avoid stupid people, stupid places, and stupid times. By yourself at 2:30 AM in downtown SF is 2 of those 3 in my book. I am certain then when we find out he was with, that all 3 rules will have been violated for this to happen.
I’m not blaming the victim here, but he moved away from this shithole to Miami, he knew the insanity of the city, why in the world was he walking around at 2am and not in an Uber?
And F-k that person who was in the car and drove off without helping
Kinda making a lot of assumptions without the fact. I would hold off there cowboy. The guy was worth at least 10 M so there could have been allot of reasons for this other than random.
I though this was interesting in one of the linked articles.
The stabbing stunned those who say the neighborhood, which is also called the East Cut, isn’t dangerous.
Guess the hood name has new meaning.
The guy appears to have been married at least 10 years and has two daughters. My heart and prayers go out to his family.
Just remember, death before our time is always painful no matter what the cause.
Actually I did t make any assumptions, you did, I was asking a reasonable question cowgirl
Ouch! That’s gonna leave a mark.
😉
Na, doesn’t hurt. It is an assumption:
“he walking around at 2am and not in an Uber
We do not know anything that happened before this point. For all we know he was in town meeting friends and was drunk. He could have been looking for his Uber when he was attacked. There is just too many unknowns. It was a rhetorical question meant to insult. Call it what you want. What I have read on the guy, he seems to be pretty sharp and seems to be a family man with a wife and two kids. Why dis him?
I feel bad this happened. This man was not prepared to meet the needs of the moment. I too live in a city that has standard urban problems (his home town actually); but I live in a free state where I am not denied the means of self-defense. Had he been properly armed and trained, he would likely be alive and the perp dead. Always Be Armed.
Which translates to, never visit blue California.
That is probably the rule for 9 out of the top 10 largest cities. I say allow C&C in them all and not worry about it.
Concealed carry is unfair to the disadvantaged criminal just trying to get by.
Cry Me a river…
Hillary Clinton and the FIB are my 2 prime suspects.
Now now, when Hillary murders someone they usually do it by the way of multiple gunshots to the back of the head they usually do it by the way ots to the back of the head using
I hate my phone, as I was saying when Hillary murders someone it’s usually done via multiple gunshot wounds to the back of the head via multiple weapons that aren’t within reach of the person involved
“The worst case of suicide I’ve ever seen.”
As sad and unforntunate as this is….I was just wondering the other day when is this stuff going to start affecting the progressive movers and shakers in a personal way.. We shall see how this starts to go down.
Do you know Mr. Lee’s political beliefs and allegiances? One can obviously assume that because he lived in San Francisco, he was a Dumb-o-crat, but, it seems a tad unfair to presume as much, without factual evidence.
He was an executive in the Tech segment…you’re missing the point. I’m not saying he was killed for his possible political beliefs but he is professionally and visibly aligned with that particular high-profile segment of Progressives…now, convince me he’s not – but that’s a separate issue.
I didn’t “miss” anything — your comment is fairly construed as your wondering when crime (“this stuff”) is going to affect “Progressive” bigwigs in a personal way. It doesn’t get more personal than getting murdered, which is fairly construed by any reader as your presuming that Mr. Lee was a Dumb-o-crat who was personally affected by crime. If, as you claim, you only meant to state that crime such as this murder is going to affect the tech class, generally, you should write more clearly to make that distinction.
Wake me up when Kate Steinle’s killer is executed. Until then, Mr Cash App is gonna have to wait in line. There’s an 8 year delay in justice in San Francisco.
Sorry to be so crass, but at this point I blame the victim for living in San Franshitgo.
I have visited SF for a conference. This was about 15 years ago though so I’m sure it’s only gotten worse.
There was an area of town called the Tenderloin District (make of that what you will). It’s a place of rampant drug use, gay prostitution, and lots of violent crime. You do not venture there, even during the day, unless you are involved in those things. I made a wrong turn and went about a block in and it took me all of 30 secs of walking to realize I was in the wrong place and I had to quickly 180 because I was looked at as a target and/or outsider that didn’t belong by everyone there.
I wonder if he was in that part looking for some kind of vice.
I lived between the Tenderloin and Nob Hill 1982-1985. We called it the Nobberloin. It has always been dangerous there – especially at night. During the day there’d be heroin junkies staggering about or sprawled on the sidewalk. Peep show joints, prostitutes with track marks on their legs and arms and strange, sinister men lurking about. That was during the day. On foot we never passed through there after dark.
The DNC convention was held at the Moscone Center – the politico’s had the police run all the street people and criminals out of that neighborhood and into our area. Junkies would get into the apartment foyer and pee on the floor. Hookers loitering across the street. It was a mess.
The name Tenderloin comes from a NYC neighborhood. I think the word Tenderloin was used in various big cities to describe ghetto conditions but stuck in SF.
Ah, but now it’s apparently upscale. According to Google Maps (heh): “The famously gritty Tenderloin has underground art spaces, classic concert venues such as the Great American Music Hall and historic theaters staging Broadway and indie shows. Its funky, colorful streets feature a mix of upscale, trendy and casual restaurants. Nightlife ranges from dark dives slinging beer and shots to speakeasy-style bars mixing craft cocktails.”
Sounds like an adventure for suburban lefties. It’s “gritty.” It has indie theaters and art and trendy restaurants, after all.
Of course, if you do a street-view of the area you see homeless junkies everywhere. And street view is always done during the day, so I can only imagine the horrors that take place at night. I wonder how many visiting cookie-cutter little progs have been the victims of crime because they decided that they needed a little adventure. Go see a show, eat out, catch the local art scene.
SF natives know to avoid it unless they’re engaged in vces, like you said.
This is horrible to read about. Too many innocent lives are being taken by criminal sociopaths and illegal aliens whose predations are being directly and indefensibly enabled by the vile Dumb-o-crats and their criminal-coddling policies.
I think the thing to keep in mind when one accuses Democrats of “criminal-coddling” is that they don’t coddle criminals just to piss you off — they coddle criminals because they represent criminals. They are the party of criminals, their mouthpiece, their national lobby. Criminals vote for Democrats to gain representation. Democrats are totally onboard with the concept that criminals deserve, by right, a portion of all that the rest of us have worked and saved out whole lives for.
When we say, “let them have what they voted for, good and hard,” we are in a sense ceding terrority entirely to its criminal subclass. We are creating American Tripolis, American Somalias.
At about that same time, I was in town for the same reason. After watching the serial perversities of that freak show known as the Bay to Breakers Run, we mistakenly walked through a part of the Tenderloin District. We made it through, but only because of luck and a fast pace. The Tenderloin is the predictable conclusion of the mentality that governed the parade, where the counterculture is the culture, and there are no boundary lines.
The murder is both sad and predictable given how SF has degenerated. I know nothing about this guy, but given his profession and this location, I assume he avidly supported the policies and politicians who have ruined SF. No one voting for Democrats in SF can complain because they’re getting what they consistently vote for. I won’t be going back.
The city is broken. Paul Pelosi was attacked inside his own home. This rich guy was killed in a “safe” neighborhood.
When the rich and Democrat are no longer safe they will move away or behind stronger walls.
I call it death by second chances.
He had enough money to live anywhere in the USA but chose to stay there. At least in Ca. he can still vote democrat for another 30 or 40 years. Hopefully his wife will sell the house, take the kids, and move to a small town in a red state.