The Founder of the mobile payment company Cash App was stabbed to death on a deserted street in San Francisco early Wednesday morning. Bob Lee was a well-known member of the Bay Area technology community, and his violent death outside some luxury apartments near the Bay Bridge underscores the decline in living conditions in the city.
Lee’s gruesome death was partially captured on surveillance video, as reported by the San Francisco Standard.
Surveillance footage reviewed by The Standard shows Lee, who had already been stabbed, walking up Main Street away from the Bay Bridge at around 2:30 a.m. Lee crosses the intersection at Harrison Street and walks up to a parked white Camry with its hazard lights flashing.
Lee then lifts his shirt—as if to show the driver his wound and ask for help—and falls to the ground after the car drives away, the footage shows. He gets up and walks back toward the Bay Bridge before falling to the ground again outside an apartment building called the Portside.
At some point, Lee dialed 911 and repeatedly screamed for help, saying he needed to go to the hospital, according to the records reviewed by The Standard. Lee made the call at 2:34 a.m. and police arrived on the scene less than six minutes later.
City leaders and the media are rushing to defend San Francisco as being a peaceful, safe city.
The crime trends for the year as of April 2, 2023 have 12 homicides compared to 10 for that same period last year.
The number of reported assault cases is up by 2% and robberies are up by 14%. But rape and human trafficking crimes are significantly down.
Statistics don’t matter when it’s somebody you love who has lost their lives in an incident in San Francisco,” added Dorsey.
“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,” Mayor London Breed said in a statement. Indeed, San Francisco is not as violent a city as Chicago, New York, or Los Angeles. There have been only 12 murders compared to 10 this time last year.
But for whatever reason, Lee felt unsafe enough that six months ago, he moved to Miami.
Lee had left the region six months ago and had moved to Miami, but was back in the city on business. He extended his trip by one day, and was murdered.
‘He did comment on San Francisco deteriorating, which is why he actually had just relocated to Miami,’ said Jake Shields, a champion UFC fighter who knew Lee well.
Shields told NewsNation that Lee had ‘no enemies,’ adding: ‘(He was) a good human being — he added to society, he was a good person, everyone loved him.
‘He was really respected in the tech community, never talked about his accomplishments, other people would tell me, “Oh yeah, Bob’s a super big deal in the tech industry.”‘
The media and city officials trying to put lipstick on a pig by claiming San Francisco isn’t that dangerous are either lying or deluding themselves. If the city wasn’t unsafe, it would be gaining population instead of losing residents.
Lee was a father of two.
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