Fatal stabbing of executive in SF shocks tech

A high-profile tech executive was the victim of a fatal stabbing in San Francisco that has shocked many in Silicon Valley.

Bob Lee, 43, was the chief product officer at San Francisco-based cryptocurrency startup MobileCoin. He also founded Cash App and was the chief technology officer of Square, which later changed its name to Block.

Lee was "apparently stabbed to death" in the city's downtown Rincon Hill neighborhood, San Francisco police said. Officers responded to the scene at about 2:35 am Tuesday after receiving a report of a stabbing. They rushed Lee to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, police said.

According to a tweet by Jake Shields, a former champion mixed martial arts fighter and a friend of the victim, Lee was walking "in the 'good' part of the city and appeared to have been targeted in a random mugging/attack".

The father of two young daughters, Lee had recently moved from the Bay Area to Miami, Florida. He was on a business trip to San Francisco. The SFPD has not made any arrests in the case yet.

Lee's death was confirmed by his father.

"I just lost my best friend, my son Bob Lee when he lost his life on the street in San Francisco early Tuesday Morning," Rick Lee wrote on Facebook.

Lee's death has sparked another round of criticism of San Francisco's judicial system by tech heavyweights.

Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, SpaceX and owner of Twitter, voiced his frustration about "violent crimes" in San Francisco.

"Many people I know have been severely assaulted," Musk tweeted. "Even if attackers are caught, they are often released immediately.

"Is the city taking stronger action to incarcerate repeat violent offenders?" Musk directly asked San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins on Twitter. Jenkins took office after frustrated voters overwhelmingly recalled her progressive predecessor Chesa Boudin last June.

"I want to extend my sincerest condolences to Mr. Lee's family members & loved ones for his loss. We do not tolerate these horrific acts of violence in San Francisco," Jenkins wrote on Twitter.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed called Lee's death a "horrible tragedy" in a statement.

"My sympathies go out to his family and friends," Breed said. "The police are actively investigating what happened and will share details as soon as they can."

MobileCoin founder Joshua Goldbard said in a statement: "Bob was a dynamo, a force of nature. Bob was the genuine article. He was made for the world that is being born right now, he was a child of dreams, and whatever he imagined, no matter how crazy, he made real."

Goldbard also wrote on Twitter: "I will never forget Bob. There will never be anyone quite like him. As a lifelong Bay Area resident I have more questions than answers tonight. I don't know how to fix what's wrong, but I know something isn't working in our grey city."

Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter who now runs Block, posted online Wednesday in response to a news story about Lee.

"It's real. Getting calls," he wrote. "Heartbreaking. Bob was instrumental to Square and Cash App."

A 2022 report compiled by the NeighborhoodScout website said San Francisco has one of the highest crime rates in America. The chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime in San Francisco is 1 in 18, or 6 percent, the report revealed.

Asian Americans have constituted the majority of crime victims in the city, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which started in the US in early 2020.

In January 2022, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) confirmed that reported hate crimes against Asian Americans in 2021 were up "an astonishing 567 percent from the previous year", as many of the often elderly Asian victims were shoved, slammed, kicked, pushed or verbally abused.

"I deplore the literally dead city of San Francisco," said Chris Lu, a software engineer whose office is on Market Street downtown.

"I don't feel safe every day when I commute by public transit, walk on the street, or even try to get into the office building because there are always groups of homeless people gathered at the front door, some apparently lunatic and confrontational," Lu said.

After winning election in November, Jenkins said, "I pledge that improving and promoting public safety will be my and our office's top priority."

The crime rate in San Francisco, however, remains elevated.

According to the latest SFPD data, the number of violent crimes is up by 6 percent this year, which is the equivalent of 75 more violent crimes.

As of April 2, San Francisco had 12 homicides in 2023, compared with 10 over the same period in 2022.