Cash App creator Bob Lee, 43, killed in San Francisco stabbing: reports
Tech entrepreneur Bob Lee, who created the mobile payment service Cash App, was stabbed to death in a well-to-do San Francisco neighborhood — in Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s district — on Tuesday morning, authorities and loved ones said.
The 43-year-old dad of two, who formerly served as the chief technology officer of Square, was attacked in the city’s downtown Rincon Hill neighborhood at 2:35 a.m., according to San Francisco police.
Officers arrived to find the victim, later confirmed to be Lee by CBS News, with multiple stab wounds.
Lee was taken to a nearby hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries, police told the outlet.
No arrests have been made as of early Wednesday.
Police have not released any details about a suspect.
The Post has reached out to the San Francisco Police Department for comment.
Jake Shields, Lee’s friend, and a mixed martial arts champion, revealed Lee was attacked while he was walking.
“He was in the ‘good’ part of the city and appeared to have been targeted in a random mugging/attack,” Shields tweeted.
He later said Lee had moved out of the Democrat-run city, which has had constant problems with homeless people and drug addicts in recent years, because of how it has been changing for the worse.
He told NewsNation: “He did comment on San Francisco deteriorating, which is why he actually had just relocated to Miami.
“I’m not sure why he’s going back there [for] a little business in San Francisco for a couple of days.”
The median house price in Rincon Hill is $1.4 million, according to realtor.com.
Lee had served as the chief product officer of San Francisco-based cryptocurrency company MobileCoin since November 2021, according to his LinkedIn page.
The San Francisco Standard described Lee as “a longtime member of the Bay Area software development community who had recently moved to Miami.”
For this particular business trip, he had decided to stay in the city for an extra day when he was attacked, a friend of the slain executive told the outlet.
“I’m still in shock,” the friend said. “No way he did anything to provoke this and I feel like he would just hand his money and watch to a mugger.”
Elon Musk and other tech leaders decried the tragic stabbing. Responding to Shields’ tweet, Musk slammed San Francisco for what he described as an ongoing spree of “violent crime.”
“Many people I know have been severely assaulted,” Musk tweeted. “Violent crime in SF is horrific and even if attackers are caught, they are often released immediately.”
Musk also asked San Francisco district attorney Brooke Jenkins if the city was “taking stronger action to incarcerate repeat offenders.”
Jack Dorsey, whose company Block owns Cash App, also confirmed Lee’s passing in a post on the decentralized social media platform Nostr. Lee was the first chief technology officer at Square, the company that was later renamed Block.
Tributes from his co-workers began to pour in Tuesday night, with MobileCoin CEO Joshua Goldbard calling Lee “a force of nature.”
“Bob was a force of nature. Helped to birth Android and CashApp into our world,” Goldbard told ABC7.
“Moby was his dream: a privacy-protecting wallet for the 21st Century. I will miss him every day.”
Abra Global CEO Bill Barhydt remembered Lee as “a generous decent human being who didn’t deserve to be killed,” and noted he was a father of two young girls.
During his tech career, Lee also worked at Google, where he led Android’s core library team and launched the world’s most-used operating system, according to his profile on MobileCoin’s official website.
Later, Lee founded the social network Present and went on to invest in companies like Figma, Clubhouse, Beeper, and Faire.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the globe, Lee assisted the World Health Organization with its mobile app and later helped to develop an at-home testing company.
