Cash App founder killed — latest: Bob Lee stabbing leads chased by San Francisco police but still no suspects

San Francisco police say they are chasing down unspecified leads in the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee as the search for his killer enters day four.

Gruesome details continue to emerge about the murder in an early morning mugging continue to emerge, but authorities do not appear to be anywhere closer to an arrest.

“We have some leads to follow up on,” San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said Thursday as scrutiny mounts over the investigation. “I can’t disclose what those are now, it’s early on in the investigation. But I’m hopeful and I’m very confident.”

Lee was found mortally wounded outside a luxury residential building near Rincon Hill at 2.35am on Tuesday after bystanders allegedly failed to help the tech mogul as he searched for aid.

The case has sparked fresh outrage over crime in the city, with friends revealing that Lee had recently relocated to Miami for that reason.

“He did comment on San Francisco deteriorating,” a former MMA fighter and friend of Mr Lee, Jake Shields, told NewsNation.

Key Points

• Bob Lee: A genius tech visionary killed in a ‘horrifying act of violence’

• Lee spent time with friends night before his death

• What we know about the murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee

• No arrests 50 hours after Cash App creator Bob Lee stabbed to death in San Francisco

• ‘His resume reads something like a Fortune cover article'

Bob Lee: A genius tech visionary killed in a ‘horrifying act of violence’

Thursday 6 April 2023 17:47 , Bevan Hurley

The outpouring of tributes, memories and anecdotes that have streamed over social media since tech pioneer Bob Lee was stabbed to death tell of a genius engineer, a serial innovator, a loving family man, and, as his nickname Crazy Bob would suggest, someone with a sense of humour.

Friends told how Lee dropped out of St Louis University, Missouri, and through sheer brilliance at computer coding and a determination to improve the lives of others went on to develop digital tools such as Google’s Android and the Cash App that are now used by tens of millions of people each day.

He had a “kaleidoscopic mind” who moved seamlessly between different circles of friends, wrote Joshua Goldbard, the founder and chief executive of MobileCoin, where Lee had worked as chief product officer since 2021.

“Pick a topic and Bob would be right there with you telling you all of the ways he had thought about the idea already,” Mr Goldbard said on Twitter. “He had a way of seeing the world that was enchanting. He was a visionary in so many ways.”

Read more:

Bob Lee: A genius tech visionary killed in a ‘horrifying act of violence’

Police chief ‘hopeful’ about stabbing investigation as scrutiny grows

12:30 , Megan Sheets

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.

Timeline of Bob Lee murder – Cash App founder who moved out of San Francisco due to rising crime rate

12:00 , Shweta Sharma

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.

The 43-year-old tech mogul was found at 2.35am 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 San Francisco Police Department said in a statement.

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.

Read more:

Timeline of Bob Lee murder – Cash App founder who moved out of San Francisco

What we know about the murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee

11:00 , Bevan Hurley

High-profile tech entrepreneur Bob Lee was stabbed to death outside an apartment building in San Francisco early on Tuesday morning, grieving friends and family have confirmed.

The 43-year-old was found at 2.35am 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 San Francisco Police Department said in a statement.

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.

Here’s what we know so far about the murder:

What we know about the murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee

‘We’ve lost a great innovator, intelligence, and spirit'

10:00 , AP

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.”

‘His resume reads something like a Fortune cover article'

09:00 , AP

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.’”

Police Commissioner calls using death of tech mogul for ‘political agenda’ is ‘distasteful'

08:00 , Gustaf Kilander

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”.

San Francisco Mayor says Bob Lee’s death is a 'horrible tragedy’

07:00 , Gustaf Kilander

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.

‘Crazy Bob’

06:00 , Bevan Hurley

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

After working as an open source code developer in St Louis, Missouri, Mr Lee moved to San Francisco in his early 20s in 2004 to work as an engineer at Google, according to the San Francisco Standard. There he led a team that developed the first Android app.

Mr Lee was headhunted by Square, becoming its 13th employee, where he helped launch the Cash App and became the payment firm’s first chief technology officer in 2011, a Linkedin profile shows.

After leaving Square in 2014, he invested in several tech startups including Clubhouse, Beeper and Faire, and the female-focused social media and networking company Present. He identified as a “stay at home dad” in an online blog post during this period.

In 2021, Mr Lee joined MobileCoin, a crypto payment firm, as its chief product officer.

VIDEO: Growing calls for justice in deadly stabbing of Cash App founder

05:00 , The Independent

Onlookers ignored Lee’s plea for help

04:30 , Bevan Hurley

Surveillance footage appears to capture Mr Lee approach a parked car clutching one side of his body and bleeding heavily from stab wounds.

The 43-year-old father of two lifts his shirt to show the driver the extent of his injuries, but rather than help, the motorist speeds off.

Those last tragic moments as he stumbled down Main St in San Francisco’s downtown district at 2.30am on Tuesday in search of help were caught on CCTV and viewed by journalists from The San Francisco Standard.

The footage initially shows Mr Lee walking along a deserted sidewalk on Main St with his mobile phone in one hand and holding his side with the other, The Standard reports.

The Cash App founder then crosses at the intersection with Harrison St toward where a white Toyota Camry with flashing lights is parked.

The footage reportedly shows Mr Lee lift up his shirt in a plea for help, and then fall to the ground as the driver pulls away.

Mr Lee then gets back to his feet and starts to retraces his steps along Main St in the direction of the Bay Bridge before collapsing again outside of the Portside apartment building at 403 Main St.

The Standard reported that it witnessed staff members cleaning what appeared to be blood from the side of the building on Wednesday.

Random attack?

04:00 , Bevan Hurley

The San Francisco Police Department said in a statement that Mr Lee was found with fatal stab wounds in Downtown San Francisco between Soma and the Financial District, a block from Google’s San Francisco headquarters.

Friend and MMA fighter Jake Shields tweeted that Mr Lee appeared to have been the victim of a random mugging in the “good part of the city”.

The tweet caught the attention of Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who offered his condolences and called on San Francisco district attorney Brooke Jenkins to take tougher action against violent criminals.

“Many people I know have been severely assaulted,” Mr Musk tweeted. “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?”

Ms Jenkins later tweeted her “sincerest condolences” to Mr Lee’s grief-stricken family and friends.

“We do not tolerate these horrific acts of violence in San Francisco,” she added.

Responding to Mr Musk, she said: “No one who commits a violent crime, or who’s a repeat offender are receiving overly lenient plea deals.”

San Francisco Police said they have not made any arrests, and haven’t provided any details of suspects.

In their statement, the SFPD said responding officers had found a 43-year-old victim with stab wounds: “Officers rendered aid and summoned medics to the scene. The victim was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. Despite efforts by first responders and medical personnel, the victim succumbed to his injuries.”

Criticised ex-DA filed about as many charges as any other prosecutor since 2011

03:30 , Josh Marcus

Analysis from Mission Local shows that former San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin filed about as many charges as any other prosecutor in the city since 2011, while city police data shows overall crime and larceny theft on a downward trend in the years before and during when Mr Boudin was in office.

In some categories, like burglary, crime did go up while Mr Boudin was in office, rising by 45 per cent, though it’s worth noting the DA was also in power during the immense social dislocation of the pandemic.

Critics like Elon Musk also appear to take issue with pre-trial release in California, where those accused of crimes can sometimes pay cash bail to be released until their case is over, or can otherwise by released by diversion programmes.

As The Appeal reports, median bail in California is more than five times the national level, keeping thousands of people in jail despite having not been convicted of a crime because they can’t afford release like their wealthier counterparts. According to research from UCLA, the statewide percentage of unsentenced people in California jail populations has been increasing since 2017.

San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins, who replaced Mr Boudin after the recall, has said she will continue his practice of rarely seeking cash bail.

Former San Francisco DA slammed for decriminalizing ‘quality-of-life’ crimes

03:00 , Josh Marcus

Some have argued that the singling out of former San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin is unfair, as one local prosecutor like Mr Boudin couldn’t be blamed for a city’s failure to ensure a social safety net.

“As a prosecutor, Boudin could not undo the root causes driving displacement,” the Vera Institute of Justice, a liberal criminal justice reform group, wrote in a post-mortem of the recall effort. “He decriminalized what are commonly referred to as ‘quality-of-life’ crimes, like public camping and public urination. He also sought alternatives to incarceration to address substance use, including investments in diversion programs proven to reduce harm.”

“Those policies drew the ire of people who wanted to police the housing crisis rather than invest in the public housing and support services needed to address it,” the group added.

Father of slain Cash App founder Bob Lee says he ‘would give you the shirt off his back’

02:30 , Bevan Hurley

The father of murdered tech mogul Bob Lee says he has lost his best friend as San Francisco police continue to hunt for suspects in the “random killing”.

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.

Read more:

Cash App founder Bob Lee’s father says he ‘would give you the shirt off his back’

Bob Lee: Shocking video appears to show onlookers ignore dying Cash App founder as he begs for help

02:00 , Bevan Hurley

Clutching one side of his body where he is bleeding heavily from stab wounds, tech executive Bob Lee appears to approach a parked car in urgent need of medical care.

The 43-year-old father of two lifts his shirt to show the driver the extent of his injuries, but rather than help, the motorist speeds off.

Lee’s last tragic moments as he stumbled down Main St in San Francisco’s downtown district at 2.30am on Tuesday in search of help were captured on surveillance footage and viewed by journalists from The San Francisco Standard.

He was discovered at 2.35am outside a luxury residential building on the 300 block of Main St, near Rincon Hill and the Bay Bridge.

The footage initially shows Lee walking along a deserted sidewalk on Main St with his mobile phone in one hand and holding his side with the other, The Standard reports.

Read more:

Shocking video appears to show onlookers ignore dying Cash App founder Bob Lee

Timeline of Bob Lee murder – Cash App founder who moved out of San Francisco due to rising crime rate

01:30 , Shweta Sharma

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.

The 43-year-old tech mogul was found at 2.35am 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 San Francisco Police Department said in a statement.

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.

Read more:

Timeline of Bob Lee murder – Cash App founder who moved out of San Francisco

Former District Attorney criticised after Bob Lee’s death

01:00 , Josh Marcus

A perception remains that San Francisco officials are soft on crime, with much of the anger funnelled at former DA Chesa Boudin, who was eventually recalled in 2022.

He took steps alternatively celebrated by criminal justice reformers and reviled by critics, such as rolling back the use of often racially disproportionate “sentence enhancements,” and directing prosecutors to consider the immigration status of certain drug criminals and avoid high-level charges against non-violent offenders who could be deported.

Even after he left office in 2022, facing a well-funded recall effort, some were still blaming Mr Boudin for the city’s crime problems.

Matt Ocko, a Palo Alto tech venture capitalist who was friends with Bob Lee, blamed former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin and what he called the “criminal-loving city council” for creating a “lawless” city.

“Take action,” he urged city leaders on Twitter, claiming they have “Bob’s literal blood on their hands.”

San Francisco mayor backs increased police funding

Friday 7 April 2023 00:30 , Josh Marcus

Despite initially overseeing a $120m reinvestment from the SFPD budget to other social service programmes aimed at minority communites, Mayor London Breed has emerged as a backer for increased police funding.

Last month, she asked the city Board of Supervisors to approve a $27m budget supplemental to fund police overtime. Between 2019 and 2022, even with the $120m cuts, the SFPD budget still grew by 4.4 per cent, and none of the reinvestments cut active-duty officer positions, KGO reported.

In the last five years, San Francisco police clearance rates for assault and robbery also declined. San Francisco police have said some issues are the result of staffing issues, and that the department is running at about 75 per cent capacity.

The mayor’s stance on policing has even won plaudits from the conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal editorial board.

San Francisco tech and business communities complain of lack of anti-crime measures

Friday 7 April 2023 00:00 , Josh Marcus

Many within the tech and business communities have complained that San Francisco officials don’t do enough to stop crime.

Alan Alden, who works in finance in Palo Alto and knew Bob Lee, blamed San Francisco mayor London Breed for public safety issues, telling the mayor on Twitter her “policies have claimed another life.”

“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,” the mayor’s office told The Independent in a statement. “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.”

Inequality drives public safety issues in San Francisco, experts say

Thursday 6 April 2023 23:30 , Josh Marcus

San Francisco has grappled for years with deep inequalities: it is home to some of the wealthiest corporations in the world, as well as one of the nation’s highest rates of unhoused people without shelter. According to a 2022 analysis from the San Francisco Chronicle, using household income data, San Francisco is the third most unequal city in the country.

Some experts say it is this inequality that drives public safety issues in the city.

“There is not a crime spike happening, except in limited areas,” James King, a criminal justice reform activist in the Bay Area with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, told Jewish Currents last year. “But what is, I hope, peaking is frustration with a diminishing quality of life as a result of the pandemic. The pandemic revealed serious inequities in our society, as well as a lack of social safety net infrastructure to mitigate them.”

He added that San Franciscans sometimes have a heightened perception of crime and disorder because of the visibility of problems like the lack of housing.

“That type of visibility causes genuine discomfort for people who have more resources,” Mr King continued. “What’s lacking is any type of plan to deal with the root causes of what we’re seeing.”

Cash App founder Bob Lee left San Francisco over crime but was back to visit when he was stabbed, says friend

Thursday 6 April 2023 23:00 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Cash App founder Bob Lee had relocated to Miami from San Francisco due to fears of rising crime but was back visiting the California city when he was stabbed to death in an apparent random mugging, according to a friend.

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.

Read more:

Slain tech mogul Bob Lee had left San Francisco over crime, says friend

Bay Area safer than cities with comparable populations

Thursday 6 April 2023 22:30 , Josh Marcus

The city of Jackson, Mississippi, the place with the highest per capita murder rate by some measures, had nearly 13 times more murders per capita than San Francisco, according to city police data.

Meanwhile, the Bay Area tech hub, which saw 56 homicides in 2022, is in fact safer than cities with comparable populations like Indianapolis, where 210 people died last year in criminal homicides, or Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, where 110 people were killed in 2022.

As The Independent has reported, despite relentless depictions in the media of liberal states like California or Illinois as the leading zones of violence in the US, red states also typically suffer the highest rates of gun violence and gun death.

Start of 2022 had lowest level of violent crime in San Francisco since 1985

Thursday 6 April 2023 22:00 , Josh Marcus

Despite being one of the country’s largest cities by population, San Francisco wasn’t in the top 10 cities with the highest homicide rate in the US, according to an analysis of local and federal crime data from WLBT.

Those cities –Jackson, Mississippi; New Orleans, Louisiana; Birmingham, Alabama; St Louis, Missouri; Baltimore, Maryland; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Detroit, Michigan; Cleveland, Ohio; Memphis, Tennessee; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin – were almost all concentrated in the Midwest and South in Republican-controlled states with high poverty rates.

In fact, violent crime rates have largely been declining in San Francisco since peaking in the 1990s, with the beginning of 2022 marking the lowest level of reported violent crime since 1985, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Lee spent time with friends night before his death

Thursday 6 April 2023 21:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Lee was in San Francisco to attend the MobileCoin leadership summit last week and had remained in the city for a few additional days to see friends when he was attacked.

Doug Dalton met Mr Lee at the beginning of their respective careers when they were both software engineers, according to CBS News.

“He brought people together. He brought technologies together,” Mr Dalton said. “He was a wonderful father, he was just always doing the best that he possibly could.”

Mr Dalton said he, Mr Lee, and a number of other friends hung out the evening before his death.

“That area that he was walking back from was headed right toward his hotel,” he said.

“I feel like he had so much more to offer and this is just shocking that this has happened,” Mr Dalton added.

What we know about the murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee

Thursday 6 April 2023 21:00 , Bevan Hurley

High-profile tech entrepreneur Bob Lee was stabbed to death outside an apartment building in San Francisco early on Tuesday morning, grieving friends and family have confirmed.

The 43-year-old was found at 2.35am 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 San Francisco Police Department said in a statement.

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.

Here’s what we know so far about the murder:

What we know about the murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee

Onlookers ignored Lee’s plea for help

Thursday 6 April 2023 20:30 , Bevan Hurley

Surveillance footage appears to capture Mr Lee approaching a parked car clutching one side of his body and bleeding heavily from stab wounds.

The 43-year-old father of two lifts his shirt to show the driver the extent of his injuries, but rather than help, the motorist speeds off.

Those last tragic moments as he stumbled down Main St in San Francisco’s downtown district at 2.30am on Tuesday in search of help were caught on CCTV and viewed by journalists from The San Francisco Standard.

The footage initially shows Mr Lee walking along a deserted sidewalk on Main St with his mobile phone in one hand and holding his side with the other, The Standard reports.

The Cash App founder then crosses at the intersection with Harrison St toward where a white Toyota Camry with flashing lights is parked.

The footage reportedly shows Mr Lee lift up his shirt in a plea for help, and then fall to the ground as the driver pulls away.

Mr Lee then gets back to his feet and starts to retrace his steps along Main St in the direction of the Bay Bridge before collapsing again outside of the Portside apartment building at 403 Main St.

The Standard reported that it witnessed staff members cleaning what appeared to be blood from the side of the building on Wednesday.

October 2022: Bob Lee moves to Miami

Thursday 6 April 2023 20:00 , Shweta Sharma

In October 2022, Lee relocated to Miami. Lee’s friend and mixed martial arts champion Jake Shields told News Nation that the entrepreneur had just moved to Miami due to a rise in drug abuse and crime in San Francisco.

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

On 7 October 2022 he tweeted a picture of the Miami skyline and said he moved there a week ago.

No arrests 50 hours after Cash App creator Bob Lee stabbed to death in San Francisco

Thursday 6 April 2023 19:45 , Bevan Hurley

Cash App founder Bob Lee was stabbed to death in San Francisco in an apparent random mugging early on Tuesday morning, friends and colleagues have confirmed.

Lee was found at 2.35am outside the luxury high rise apartment on the 300 block of Main St, near Rincon Hill and the Bay Bridge, with life-threatening stab wounds, the San Francisco Police Department said in a statement.

The 43-year-old tech executive was treated at the scene by first responders before being rushed to hospital where he died from his injuries, police said. More than two days on, no arrests have been made and police are yet to release information about possible suspects.

Lee founded the Cash App while working at Square, which was renamed Block in 2021, before becoming chief technology officer at the Jack Dorsey-led digital payment giant.

Read more:

Who stabbed Bob Lee?

2021: Bob Lee becomes chief product officer of MobileCoin

Thursday 6 April 2023 19:30 , Shweta Sharma

In late 2021, Lee became chief product officer of MobileCoin and said in a statement that he hoped the company could “help the hundreds of millions of unbanked people worldwide” by giving them an option of democratised access to digital cash.

The company received $66m in venture backing.

2019: Bob Lee moves to Mill Valley, CA

Thursday 6 April 2023 19:00 , Shweta Sharma

In 2019, Lee moved to Mill Valley in California with his father Rick Lee following his mother’s death.

“I just lost my best friend, my son Bob Lee, when he lost his life on the street in San Francisco early Tuesday Morning,” wrote Rick Lee in a post. “I moved to Mill Valley, CA, with Bob after his mother died in 2019 and we recently relocated to Miami in Oct 2022,” he said.

He purchased a four-bedroom residence in Mill Valley in 2018 for $2.6m, which he sold in July 2022 for $4.43m.

2015: Bob Lee becomes CEO of local chat group app Present

Thursday 6 April 2023 18:30 , Shweta Sharma

In 2015, he became the CEO of the local chat group app Present, a year after resigning from Square.

The chat group app was based on the idea to connect women and he helped host the 2018 Women’s March in San Francisco.

A Facebook picture of Lee from 2015 shows him on the floor of the Nasdaq the day the company went public.

2004 - 2011: Bob Lee’s career gets underway

Thursday 6 April 2023 18:00 , Shweta Sharma

In 2004, Lee moved to San Francisco to begin his job as an engineer at Google, leading Android’s core library team and launching the world’s most used operating system.

He began living in the city after living and working in St Louis Missouri for 10 years as an open-source developer.

By 2010, his career had already skyrocketed and it was the year when Lee joined Square.

Lee, who was largely self-taught, was recruited by billionaire Block co-founder Jim McKelvey and Jack Dorsey. He built its main payments product before creating the Cash App.

He said “Square is the top free finance app in Android’s market” and also wrote that “Android Surpasses iPhone in the US”.

In 2011, just a year after his joining he was promoted to be the company’s first Chief Technology Officer.

In a 15 November blog entry, he apologised for an error in the app. “Mistakes happen. At Square, we accept that human error is inevitable. We anticipate potential slip-ups and implement safety measures to mitigate – and oftentimes completely eliminate – any repercussions,” he wrote and further explained how it happened.

‘We’ve lost a great innovator, intelligence, and spirit'

Thursday 6 April 2023 17:30 , AP

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.”

‘His resume reads something like a Fortune cover article'

Thursday 6 April 2023 17:00 , AP

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.’”

Police Commissioner calls using death of tech mogul for ‘political agenda’ is ‘distasteful'

Thursday 6 April 2023 16:30 , Gustaf Kilander

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”.

San Francisco Mayor says Bob Lee’s death is a 'horrible tragedy’

Thursday 6 April 2023 16:00 , Gustaf Kilander

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.

San Francisco Police Chief says ‘we are not commenting on evidence’ of ‘horrific crime’

Thursday 6 April 2023 15:30 , Gustaf Kilander

San Francisco Police Chief William Scott issued a statement on the death of Mr Lee.

San Francisco Police Chief William Scott