Cash App founder dead latest: San Francisco police chase leads after Bob Lee stabbed to death

More than 72 hours have now passed since Cash App founder Bob Lee was found mortally wounded outside a luxury building in San Francisco – and still no suspects have been identified nor arrests made.

As scrutiny over the investigation continues to mount, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott cautiously assured that some progress is being made.

“We have some leads to follow up on,” he said Thursday.

“I can’t disclose what those are now, it’s early on in the investigation. But I’m hopeful and I’m very confident.”

The stabbing is thought to have occurred during a random mugging after 2am on Tuesday.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told ABC7 that she has received no information suggesting Lee was intentionally targeted.

Rick Lee paid tribute to his 43-year-old son in a Facebook post on Wednesday, a day after after he was stabbed to death in downtown San Francisco at around 2.30am on Tuesday morning.

Mr Lee wrote that the pair had lived together in Mill Valley, California, since the death of his wife in 2019, before relocating to Miami in October last year.

“Bob would give you the shirt off his back. He would never look down on anyone and adhered to a strict no-judgment philosophy,” his father wrote.

The tech mogul was found at 2.35am Tuesday outside a luxury high-rise apartment on the 300 block of Main St near Rincon Hill and the Bay Bridge, with life-threatening stab wounds, the police said.

Lee’s friend and mixed martial arts champion Jake Shields said that the entrepreneur had just moved to Miami due to a rise in drug abuse and crime in San Francisco.

He told NewsNation that the attack was another “senseless act of violence in San Francisco”.

“He did comment on San Francisco deteriorating, which is why he had actually just relocated to Miami,” Mr Shields said.

More than 72 hours have now passed since Cash App founder Bob Lee was found mortally wounded outside a luxury building in San Francisco – and still no suspects have been identified nor arrests made.

As scrutiny over the investigation continues to mount, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott cautiously assured that some progress is being made.

“We have some leads to follow up on,” he said Thursday.

“I can’t disclose what those are now, it’s early on in the investigation. But I’m hopeful and I’m very confident.”

The stabbing is thought to have occurred during a random mugging after 2am on Tuesday.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told ABC7 that she has received no information suggesting Lee was intentionally targeted.

Bob Lee, who was the founder of the multibillion-dollar tech company Cash App, had relocated to Miami and was reportedly staying an extra day in San Francisco where he was stabbed to death on Tuesday.

Lee was the chief product officer of San Francisco-based cryptocurrency startup MobileCoin and an active investor in companies such as SpaceX, Clubhouse, and Figma.

Lee was a much-loved member of the San Francisco tech community, where he was affectionately known as Crazy Bob.

He is survived by two young daughters and his wife Krista.

The tech executive was treated at the scene by first responders before being rushed to hospital where he died from his injuries, police said. No arrests have been made.

Prominent venture capitalist Ron Conway, founder of the San Francisco-based investment firm SV Angel, tweeted Wednesday that Lee’s loss was an immense tragedy.

“Deepest condolences to Bob’s family and to the entire tech community,” Conway said. “Remembering fondly when Bob gave an inspiring talk at our CEO Summit. We’ve lost a great innovator, intelligence, and spirit. Praying a suspect is apprehended swiftly.”

The police statement did not provide any details on the circumstances of the stabbing.

“This is an open and active investigation. For that reason we are not releasing further information,” Officer Niccole Pacchetti, a public information officer, said in an email. “We will provide further details when they become available.”

Among the tech leaders to share their devastation about Lee’s death was venture capitalist Wesley Chan, co-founder of FPV Ventures. Chan said he befriended Lee more than a decade ago when they both worked at Google, at a time when software engineers like Lee were helping to build the Android smartphone operating system before its 2008 release.

“He was an incredibly iconic founder in the tech world,” Chan said by phone Wednesday. “He wrote large parts of Android when he was at Google. He became the CTO of Square and helped build Cash App. His resume reads something like a Fortune cover article.”

But Chan said Lee was also generous in helping to coach and champion other engineers and tech entrepreneurs who’d call on him for advice. And he was modest about his key role in developing successful products, such as the widely used Cash App.

“With everything that Bob worked on, it was always a pleasant surprise,” Chan said. “That’s one of the things I loved about him. He was always humble about it, he’d say, ‘Oh, I don’t know if it’s going to work or not, but we’ll try.’”

San Francisco Police Commissioner Kevin Benedicto said on Wednesday that “we don’t know all the facts … But I find it premature and distasteful to try to fit this horrifying act of violence into a preconceived narrative and use it to advance a political agenda”.

London Breed, the mayor of San Francisco, said in a statement that “the homicide of Bob Lee is a horrible tragedy and my sympathies go out to his family and friends”.

“The Police are actively investigating what happened and will share details as soon as they can,” she added. “San Francisco is prioritizing public safety, including recently passing our budget supplemental so we have the police staffing necessary to have more police officers in our neighborhoods and to investigate violent crimes when they do occur.”

“I’m confident that when the Police make an arrest in cases like this, our District Attorney will do what’s necessary to hold any individuals accountable for their actions,” Ms Breed said.