A California man who was fatally stabbed early Tuesday near downtown San Francisco was tech executive Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App and former chief technology officer of Square.
The San Francisco Police Department said officers responded to a report of a stabbing at around 2:35 a.m. Tuesday. They found a 43-year-old man with apparent stab wounds.
The man was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and later died, police said.
Authorities did not name the man, but sources identified Lee as the victim to NBC Bay Area. He had been serving as the chief product officer of the cryptocurrency company MobileCoin.
In a statement Wednesday, the chief executive of MobileCoin said that Lee “passed away yesterday” and praised his business acumen. He did not specify Lee’s cause of death.
“Bob was a dynamo, a force of nature. Bob was the genuine article,” Josh 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.”
No arrests appeared to have been made as of early Wednesday.
Police said Tuesday that the incident was being investigated by the department’s homicide detail.
Tributes poured in on social media for Lee, with former MMA fighter Jake Shields remembering the tech executive as a “loyal friend.”
In an earlier tweet, Shields had said he had “just found out my good friend was killed last night” while walking in what he characterized as a “‘good’ part of the city.”
Responding to Shields’ tweet, Twitter chief Elon Musk said he was “very sorry” to learn of Lee’s death.
The fatal stabbing could intensify scrutiny on public safety issues in San Francisco, where residents and business owners have grown increasingly concerned about violent crimes and thefts. Mayor London Breed has pledged to crack down on crime.
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