San Francisco police have yet to offer details about the murder of the founder of mobile payments company Cash App, 43-year-old Bob Lee, and the possible motive for the high-profile crime perpetrated early Tuesday morning.
“Bobby worked harder than anyone and was the smartest person I have ever known. He will be missed by all those that knew him,” Lee’s father wrote on his Facebook account.
San Francisco police revealed in a statement to have received information about the stabbing attack on the technology executive around 2:35 a.m. Tuesday.
Lee was found by officers from the San Francisco South Station in the 300 block of Main Street and taken to the hospital, where despite the efforts of doctors, he died from the injuries inflicted.
“This investigation is still in the early stages. Because of this, we are not commenting on evidence, nor will we speculate on the circumstances surrounding this horrific crime,” said Police Chief Bill Scott.
Robert Lee, who was currently MobileCoin’s chief product officer, had moved from California with his father to Miami in October 2022. Father and son had become close again after the death of Bob’s mother in 2019.
“I’m so saddened and disheartened to lose my brother,” his brother Tim Oliver Lee also wrote on Facebook. “He really was the best of us. I was so fortunate to grow up with him, and I feel like I’ve lost part of myself.”
Lee’s death has shocked the U.S. tech sector, where the star programmer left a deep mark. MobileCoin founder and CEO Joshua Goldbard highlighted Bob Lee’s business qualities in a statement released Wednesday.
“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 said.
Through his Twitter account, Goldbard praised Bob’s work at MobileCoin. He said he considered him a brother and considered him a brilliant person with a “kaleidoscopic” mind.
So far, it is unknown what leads police are following to come up with the identity of Bob Lee’s killer and the motivation for this crime.
However, Police Chief Bill Scott assured that they are conducting the necessary investigations to capture the killer.
“I want to assure everyone that our investigators are working tirelessly to make an arrest and bring justice to Mr. Lee and his loved ones,” he said.
During the pandemic, Lee brought his expertise to the work of the World Health Organization, NBC News said Wednesday. The technology executive contributed to the development of the server used for the WHO’s Covid-19 application.
His LinkedIn profile reads that Lee was an investor in Elon Musk’s SpaceX and other technology companies. These included the social audio app Clubhouse. On his social media accounts, he used the alias “crazybob.”
Bob Lee’s murder is likely to open a broad debate about the public safety problems San Francisco is currently facing. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been increasing reports of violent crime and robberies against the city’s businesses.
This year alone, there have been a total of 12 homicides, which has residents and business owners worried. Mayor London Breed announced that he would crack down on the increase in crime.
