Cash App creator Bob Lee was murdered over a week ago. Why haven’t San Francisco police caught his killer?

Bevan Hurley
Updated ·6 min read
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It’s been over one week since Robert Harold “Crazy Bob” Lee was stabbed to death in San Francisco, and police are yet to publicly identify any suspects.

Cash App founder Lee, 43, was spotted on surveillance footage stumbling along Main St in Rincon Hill at around 2.30am on 4 April pleading for help.

In a 911 call, Lee reportedly said “someone stabbed me”. He died in hospital soon after being found by authorities.

The high-profile slaying of the MobileCoin chief product officer has shaken San Francisco and placed a spotlight on the city’s crime rates.

Lee’s incensed friends in the tech community blamed the city’s pursuit of progressive law enforcement policies, with one claiming they had “Bob’s literal blood on their hands”.

In response, city officials have slammed the “politicisation” of Lee’s murder.

However, the unsolved homicide and a seemingly random attack on a former city fire commissioner on the same day have left residents on edge.

As the investigation enters its second week with no concrete signs of a breakthrough, many are asking: Why hasn’t Lee’s killer been caught?

What we know about Lee’s final moments

After relocating from San Francisco to Miami in October last year, Lee had returned to attend a MobileCoin leadership conference in the city, friends say.

Surveillance footage taken at 2.30am on 4 April from the Portside apartment building at 403 Main St showed a mortally wounded Lee desperately trying to find help.

The footage captured Lee approaching several cars while clutching his stab wounds in one hand and his cell phone in the other.

He lifts his shirt to show the driver of a parked Toyota Camry the extent of his injuries, but the car immediately drives off.

Bob Lee pictured at the New York Stock Exchange in 2015 on the day that Square, now known as Block, listed as a public company (Facebook / Bob Lee)
Bob Lee pictured at the New York Stock Exchange in 2015 on the day that Square, now known as Block, listed as a public company (Facebook / Bob Lee)

Lee called 911 at 2.34am pleading for help, according to a recording. Police arrived six minutes later, and summoned medics to the scene. Lee was rushed to San Fransisco General Hospital where he died soon afterwards.

Police refused to confirm whether a man who was spotted on CCTV wheeling a suitcase away from the area where Lee was murdered was a suspect.

It’s also unclear whether a murder weapon has been recovered, if any personal items were stolen, or what Lee was doing prior to being stabbed. Police have not responded to numerous requests for comment by The Independent.

Mr Lee had been staying about half a mile from where he was found with fatal stab wounds at the 1 Hotel on the Embarcadero, according to the San Francisco Standard.

CCTV from the Lumina apartment building, which neighbours the Portside, has also been reviewed by police.

The area close to downtown San Francisco is home to Google’s city headquarters and luxury high-rise apartment buildings. The median household income in the area was more than $244,000, according to the last Census.

Lee’s distraught friends and colleagues in the tech world quickly linked his death to the city’s “lawlessness” and recidivism. Many presumed that the stabbing was an attempted robbery.

Lee had apparently stayed on in San Francisco for an extra day after the conference had ended.

His estranged wife Krista and two daughters Dagny and Scout reportedly still live in San Francisco.

What city officials have said about the murder

In his first public statement a day after Lee’s death, San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said that was too early to provide any information on evidence they had gathered or speculate on a motive or the circumstances of the killing.

Mr Scott added that every lead was being pursued tirelessly in the case.

San Francisco police chief William Scott has refused to release any substantive information about the Bob Lee homicide inquiry (Getty Images)
San Francisco police chief William Scott has refused to release any substantive information about the Bob Lee homicide inquiry (Getty Images)

Two days later, Mr Scott told CBS San Francisco it was still too soon to know whether the stabbing was a random attack. He added that the lack of information being released was due to police wanting to preserve the integrity of the investigation.

In the hours after Lee’s death, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins was asked on Twitter by Elon Musk what she was doing to lock up repeat violent offenders.

While not addressing Mr Musk directly, Ms Jenkins responded the following day to say it was her “top priority”.

“As a former homicide prosecutor, I have a deep understanding of how these investigations & prosecutions work. I direct our staff to ensure that cases are vigorously prosecuted.”

Conspiracy theories and attacks on the San Francisco Police Department’s supposed toothless response to violent crime quickly filled the information void.

Amid a deluge of social media criticism, Police Commissioner Kevin Benedicto said at a public meeting on Wednesday that some were “exploiting this horrific incident for political gain”.

“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,” Mr Benedicto added.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed says ‘many people are going to be surprised’ when the facts are known
San Francisco Mayor London Breed says ‘many people are going to be surprised’ when the facts are known

On Monday, Mayor London Breed urged the public not to rush to conclusions about Lee’s murder and a brutal attack on former San Francisco Fire commissioner Don Carmigiani.

“When the facts of many of these cases come out, many people are going to be surprised,” Ms Breed said in comments to media at the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival in San Francisco.

While most city officials pushed back at claims that violence was out of control in the city, District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio acknowledged that many residents were living in fear.

In a Twitter thread last week, he said the city police department Ms Jenkins was rebuilding a prosecutor’s office that had been “dismantled by her predecessor” Chesa Boudin, who was recalled last year.

“It’s no consolation to say San Francisco had three times as many murders in the 1970s. What matters is how people feel today and they don’t feel safe,” Mr Engardio said.

The San Francisco Police Department and Ms Jenkins did not respond to requests for comment.

Crime in San Francisco

Violent crime and homicide is much lower in San Francisco than in many other large US cities, according to local and FBI crime data.

The northern California city reported 6.9 homicides per 100,000 people in 2021. That compares to 66 in St Louis, 47 in Detroit and 10 in Los Angeles.

But many city residents say the city has failed to deal with a rampant homelessness and drug use. Police crime data shows that motor vehicle theft and burglary are up significantly from last year.

A woman walks past flowers left outside an apartment building where technology executive Bob Lee was fatally stabbed in San Franciso (Associated Press)
A woman walks past flowers left outside an apartment building where technology executive Bob Lee was fatally stabbed in San Franciso (Associated Press)

Of the 13 homicides reported in San Francisco this year, just three have been solved, according to an analysis by ABC7.

The city’s homicide clearance rate over the past few years appears to closely track the number of sworn officers.

In 2021, the most recent year that records are available, 77 per cent of the 56 homicides that occurred in the city were solved. The city had 2,129 sworn officers that year.

In 2018, when San Francisco had 2,306 officers, the police department cleared a record high 96 percent of its 46 reported homicides.

Mayor Breed said earlier this week that San Francisco is at least 500 officers short, adding that applications were improving after she announced an increase in salary rates.