Nine days after the violent stabbing attack that took the life of tech industry veteran and Cash App founder Bob Lee, San Francisco authorities reportedly arrested a suspect in connection to the incident.
On April 4, 43-year-old Lee was found "suffering from apparent stab wounds" after getting attacked in the city's Rincon neighborhood. Paramedics tried to get him to the San Francisco General Hospital but Lee passed away from his wounds a few hours after the attack.
DON'T MISS: San Francisco Stabbing Takes Life of Cash App Founder Bob Lee
Surveillance camera footage later showed Lee trying to flag down cars passing the 300 block of San Francisco's Main Street while trailing blood and gripping his side. A white Toyota Camry is seen driving away without helping and Lee eventually called 911 himself before collapsing on the street.
Detained Suspect Ran Small Tech Firm, Reports Say
After Lee's death was discovered, the San Francisco Police Department launched an investigation and asked anyone who may have witnessed the incident to call or text the department's anonymous tip line.
On April 13, local news outlet Mission Local was the first to report that the police had gone to Emeryville, California with a warrant to arrest a potential suspect. Later reports identified the suspect as tech entrepreneur Nima Momeni.
According to his LinkedIn profile, the 38-year-old man is an IT specialist and owner of a tech consultancy firm called Expand IT. Local news outlets also reported that Momeni knew Lee personally.
While the SFPD has yet to release an official statement on Lee's arrest, the San Francisco Chronicle cited police records to report that Momeni was booked on suspicion of murder at 9:19 a.m. on April 13.
Lee's ex-wife Kristina Lee also confirmed the arrest in an interview with KTVU Fox 2.
"This is the first step toward justice," Lee said from her Miami home. Her ex-husband had also relocated to the city since the pandemic.
Flowers And Tributes For Lee Are Still Pouring In
Lee had also been the CFO of Block's Square and, at the time of his death, was the chief product officer of cryptocurrency platform MobileCoin. His death sent shockwaves among many high-profile leaders in the tech community.
Flowers and tributes are still pouring in at the site of the attack while Square CEO and Snap (SNAP) founder Jack Dorsey was one of the first to confirm Lee's death on the decentralized social media platform Nostr.
"I was with [Lee] just a few weeks ago and he gave me his trademark bear-hug and told everyone around about how amazing I was, and the story of how I had gotten to Square,” Diogo Mónica, founder of the digital asset platform Anchorage Digital and one-time Square platform security lead, wrote on Meta (META)'s Facebook. "He was brilliant and generous beyond words. We have been robbed of an amazing human being that had contributed so much."
While the reports coming out now show that Lee's death may have been targeted, the incident had also initially stirred some political arguments over whether San Francisco authorities are doing enough to address the issue of the city's rising crime.
Lee's close friend and former MMA fighter Jake Shields wrote on Twitter that he hoped Lee's status as "an extremely high profile tech guy" would "hopefully [...] at least bring attention to these problems."
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