The apparently random stabbing attack that took the life of Cash App founder Bob Lee has continued to reverberate through both the tech and business communities — tributes continue to pour in while many have also used it to call on San Francisco authorities to address the issue of rising crime.
The San Francisco Police Department had initially reported that a "43-year-old adult male victim suffering from apparent stab wounds" was found in the city's Rincon Hill neighborhood at 2:35 a.m. on Tuesday, April 4. Social media users then started report that the victim was Lee, who founded the instant payment platform Cash App which is now owned by Block (SQ).
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While paramedics arrived on the scene and rushed Lee to the San Francisco General Hospital, they were unable to save his life -- Lee passed away a few hours after the stabbing.
New Surveillance Camera Footage Shows Harrowing Details Around Lee's Death
The San Francisco Police Department asked anyone who may have witnessed the attack to call or text the department's anonymous tip line -- as of April 6, the SFPD has not made any arrests or identified potential suspects.
More details started to emerge after the San Francisco Standard obtained surveillance camera footage that shows Lee trying to get help.
Lee is seen calling into his phone as he walks down the 300 block of San Francisco's Main Street while trailing blood and gripping his side with his other hand, The Standard reported.
Subsequent camera footage also shows Lee crossing Harrison Street and walking up to a parked Toyota Camry with the hazard lights on. Lee is seen lifting his shirt to show where he had been stabbed and falling as the car drives away without helping.
He then tries to walk to a nearby apartment block and dials 911 before collapsing one more time and remaining unconscious until the paramedics arrive.
The Tech Community's Tributes Are Continuing To Pour In
In his first press conference on the incident, the SFPD Chief William Scott told journalists that the department had no new details to share but would "put out what we’ll put out as soon as we can."
Numerous high-profile tech leaders have sent out their condolences and memories of Lee. Known by the nickname "Crazy Bob," Lee had started his career working for Google (GOOGL) before founding Cash App in 2013 and later moving on to be chief product officer of cryptocurrency platform MobileCoin.
"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, who founded the digital asset platform Anchorage Digital and was once the platform security lead at other Block-owned platform Square, wrote on Facebook. "He was brilliant and generous beyond words. We have been robbed of an amazing human being that had contributed so much."
Others have used Lee's death to call attention to rising crime rates in San Francisco and what they consider to be a lax response to it from the authorities.
Former MMA fighter Jake Shields, who was a close friend of Lee and one of the first to identify him as the man killed in the stabbing, 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."
