Police arrested a suspect early Thursday in the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee this month in San Francisco, according to a county supervisor.
San Francisco police have not released any information about the arrest, but the news outlet Mission Local, which was the first to report the arrest, said the suspect is a tech worker who knew Lee and was taken into custody in Emeryville.
“Obviously, nothing can undo this senseless crime, and we reiterate our condolences to Mr. Lee’s family members, friends and colleagues,” tweeted San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents the area where Lee was found stabbed to death on April 4. “But I hope today’s arrest can begin a process of healing and closure for all those touched by this tragedy.”
The San Francisco Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The arrest marks a twist in the high-profile case, which some used to push a narrative that San Francisco was overrun by random street crime. Many pushed back against those claims, noting violent crime in San Francisco isn’t higher than in other cities of a similar size and has actually declined over the last decade.
Lee, 43, was found bleeding to death near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge around 2:35 a.m. April 4, according to police. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Lee founded the mobile payment service Cash App in 2013. He lived in Mill Valley, California, after his mother died in 2019, then moved to Miami in October, according to a Facebook post last week by his father, Rick Lee.
“Bobby worked harder than anyone and was the smartest person I have ever known,” Rick Lee wrote. “He will be missed by all those that knew him. Thank you to those who have reached out in support.”
Lee was a chief product officer at cryptocurrency startup MobileCoin and previously worked as chief technology officer at the payments platform Square, which has since been renamed Block.
In the wake of Lee’s death, tech executives, including Twitter Chief Executive Elon Musk, have decried the violence in the city, where progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin was recalled by voters last year after being criticized as “soft on crime” and neglecting to address public safety and homelessness.
Violent crime, defined by the California Department of Justice as homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, peaked in 2013 in San Francisco with 7,064 incidents. The rate has fallen over the last decade, down to 4,796 incidents in 2020 before undergoing a slight uptick to 4,887 incidents in 2021. The state agency has yet to release crime statistics for 2022.
San Francisco Police Commissioner Kevin Benedicto pointed out that San Francisco’s violent crime rate is lower than that of other major cities.
“Overall, if you look at the last five years and 10 years on a longer-term scale, crime is at a historic low,” he said. “San Francisco has public safety issues like every big city and it’s unfairly portrayed as being in the midst of a crime wave that isn’t born out of the data.”
