Picture Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Every day Beast/Twitter
Like a scene from a horror movie, Money App founder Bob Lee reportedly staggered by the streets of San Francisco after he was stabbed twice within the chest early Tuesday, pleading for assist that arrived too late. The 43-year-old was pronounced lifeless shortly thereafter, leaving two kids behind.
In response to The San Francisco Customary—which obtained data and surveillance video from the encompassing space—Lee approached a white Camry after the stabbing and lifted his shirt, “as if to indicate the motive force his wound and ask for assist.” As an alternative, the automobile drove away, and Lee dropped to the bottom. He continued strolling earlier than collapsing as soon as extra, the Customary mentioned.
Evidently, Lee was nonetheless acutely aware after the assault. At 2:34 a.m. he known as the police and shouted, “Assist! Somebody stabbed me,” the outlet mentioned. When the cops confirmed up simply six minutes later, the article mentioned, the tech govt was already unconscious.
The assault despatched a shudder by the tech business, as Lee’s family and friends mourned the surprising loss.
Ajit Varma, Lee’s buddy for almost 20 years, recalled him as “so sensible and so caring,” including that “he all the time put his pals first.”
In response to Varma, Lee grew up in St. Louis with just about no publicity to the world of cutting-edge know-how. On his personal, he began programming and growing open-source tech, and he was finally recruited to affix Google.
“On the time, Google was attempting to recruit at, like, MIT and Stanford, and Bob did not have these form of credentials,” Varma instructed The Every day Beast. “However he was an incredible programmer. He was most likely, like, perhaps the neatest Java engineer that I ever met.”
Tommy Sowers, a tech firm founder who labored with Lee and Money App throughout his failed 2009 congressional bid, echoed these sentiments, saying Lee was an extremely pushed, gifted programmer, regardless of being largely self-taught.
However not like many within the business, Sowers mentioned, Lee additionally knew how you can have time. Sower mentioned he and Lee had even gone out in the identical space the place his buddy was killed throughout considered one of their late-night adventures.
“It was simply enjoyable as a result of we’d get to midnight and he’d be like, ‘The place are we going subsequent?’” Sowers mentioned. “And it wasn’t simply to get drunk and take pictures, he simply actually liked to be round folks.”
He added that Lee was by no means violent or confrontational, and he couldn’t think about him doing something to impress the lethal assault.
“It’s simply pleasure to get to the following place,” he mentioned. “That's, I’m positive, the one emotion he had in that second [before he was killed].”
Lee’s loss of life instantly stoked debate about crime in San Francisco, with some critics accusing authorities of failing to maintain the streets secure. (In 2019, town had fewer homicides than in almost six a long time, although that determine has since trended up.)
In a press release on Wednesday, San Francisco Police Chief William Scott mentioned, “I wish to guarantee everybody that our investigators are working tirelessly to make an arrest and produce justice to Mr. Lee and his family members, simply as we attempt to do on each murder that happens in our metropolis.” He declined to supply further particulars concerning the stabbing, for the reason that investigation remains to be in its “early phases,” however he urged anybody with information of the incident to contact the division’s tip line.
Mayor London Breed added in a press release of her personal that town is “prioritizing public security, together with lately passing our funds supplemental so we now have the police staffing essential to have extra law enforcement officials in our neighborhoods and to research violent crimes once they do happen.”
Sowers mentioned he wished to talk out so as to add extra nuance and element to the general public narrative round his buddy.
“I really feel like this [story] is trending towards a trope: tech bro, partying…” he mentioned. “However there’s an actual human behind this.”