“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 posted on Facebook.
Bob Lee, a technology executive who established the mobile-based payment company Cash App and previously worked at Square was killed on Tuesday following the victim was wounded near the city center of San Francisco, according to his family members and the police.
San Francisco police said officers were called to investigate stabbing at about 2:15 a.m. Wednesday. Officers were able to find Robert Lee, 43, with apparent wounds from stabs. The man was transported to a hospital where he passed away from the injuries, according to police.
The Police Chief Bill Scott said in an announcement on Wednesday night in a statement that an investigation was still in its infancy and described it as a crime of a terrible nature.
The incident is currently being investigated by the department’s homicide unit The department announced.
Bob Lee had been working as the chief product officer for the cryptocurrency firm MobileCoin. He was the chief technology officer at Square (now named Block) the startup in financial technology that was founded by previous Twitter director Jack Dorsey.
Lee was the one to develop Cash App, a money transfer service.
“Bobby did more than anyone else and was the most intelligent person I’ve ever met. The loss of him will haunt everyone who loved him.” His father, Richard Lee, said in a post on Facebook which was accompanied by a newspaper article on the stabbing. “Thank you to those who have reached out in support.”
Both father and son were living in Miami since October , after relocating away from California, Richard Lee said in his post. They became close following the death of Bob Lee’s mother, who passed away in the year 2019. It was not immediately clear the reason Lee returned to his home in the Bay Area.
“I’m so saddened and disheartened to lose my brother,” Tim Oliver Lee 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.”
In a statement issued Wednesday, Joshua Goldbard, the chief executive officer and founder of MobileCoin said that Bob Lee “passed away yesterday” and expressed his gratitude for his business acumen. The statement didn’t specify Lee’s cause of death.
“Bob was an energiser. He was an energizing force. Bob was the real deal,” Goldbard said. “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 stated in an online thread in a Twitter thread that Lee had been “like a brother to me,” and he also praised Lee as an “brilliant” visionary with a “kaleidoscopic” mind.
The World Health Organization confirmed to NBC News on Wednesday that Lee provided the organization “support and expertise” during the epidemic, and said in a statement “Bob built a large part of the server for the WHO Covid-19 App.”
Lee also participated as an investor in Musk’s SpaceX venture and other tech firms like the social audio application Clubhouse as per the profile on his LinkedIn profile. The handle he used was “crazybob” for his LinkedIn and Twitter profiles.
Scott the police chief has offered his condolences on Wednesday evening to Lee’s family and close friends.
Michigan man irritated about a market’s Ramadan time-frame assaults the store clerks with frozen fish, officials claim.
“There is no place for this kind of violent crime against anyone in our city,” Scott stated in his statement. “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, just as we try to do on every homicide that occurs in our city.”
The fatal stabbing may increase the scrutiny of safety concerns within San Francisco, where residents as well as business owners are more concerned about thefts and violent crimes. Mayor London Breed promised to take action on criminals.
San Francisco has had 12 murders since the start in the calendar year as per statistics provided by the department of police. In the same time frame in the previous year, it recorded 10 murders.
Lee’s family and friends have paid tribute to him.
Krista Lee described her former spouse “the most incredible and beautiful human being” and added she believed that “he was everyone’s best friend.”
They had two children: Damien 17 and Scout and Scout, both 14. Damien Lee said his father was a person of the earth who was always attentive.
“He was a truly extraordinary person to be around. I’m sad to see him go in such a short time,” Damien Lee said in an announcement.
A former MMA fighter Jake Shields remembered him as an “loyal friend.” In an apparent response in one Shields Twitter posts, Musk declared that he is “very sorry” to learn that Lee had passed away.
Dorsey who was who was the CEO at one time of Twitter the company, described Lee’s death as “heartbreaking” on the social media platform Nostr. “Bob was instrumental to Square and Cash App,” Dorsey wrote.
Joshua Bloch, a friend who worked alongside Lee for a time at Google in the latter part of 2000 and remembered him as an attractive character that “always had a huge smile on his face” and “constantly lived life to the fullest.”
In a phone interview on Wednesday, Bloch recalled that Lee was an IT “autodidact” who could seemingly “do anything he wanted,” saying, “I don’t think he realized how special he was.”
“People always say nice things about the dead,” Bloch declared, “but in this case I would be saying exactly the same things in the event that he was still alive. He was awe-inspiring.”
