The emerging picture of Bob Lee’s final moments keeps getting darker.
The CashApp founder was fatally stabbed in San Francisco early Tuesday morning. San Francisco Police Department Chief Bill Scott said in a statement Wednesday that the investigation is in the “early stages” and the department wouldn’t comment on any evidence obtained thus far.
What we do know is that the 43-year-old tech executive was in the well-to-do Rincon Hill neighborhood, a fast-growing section of the city. It’s quiet, it’s nice. It’s the sort of place where one could say “this sort of thing doesn’t happen here.”
Until it does.
Now, as CNN reported, the moments right after Lee’s stabbing were captured on surveillance video.
The footage, reviewed by the online news site The San Francisco Standard, was recorded early Tuesday morning and shows Lee walking alone on Main Street, “gripping his side with one hand and his cellphone in the other, leaving a trail of blood behind him.”
The video, the Standard reports, shows Lee making his way up the street and stopping by a parked Toyota Camry with its hazard lights flashing. He lifts up his shirt in an apparent attempt to ask for help from the driver. The driver of the Toyota pulls the car away and Lee collapses to the ground. Lee manages to get up and walk a bit further before he collapses in front of an apartment building.
The heartless act of driving away from a stabbing victim underscores the devolution of life in this once-great city.
San Francisco has been described as Boston, but with better weather. Both have Democratic leadership, both have strong liberal bases. But San Francisco is the canary in the coal mine.
Its homeless population sprawls on streets, lining sidewalks with tents and depositing used needles and trash in abundance. Crime is on the rise, and Lee’s death heightens the call for greater public safety.
Elon Musk took to his social media site Twitter to post that “violent crime in SF is horrific and even if attackers are caught, they are often released immediately” and tagged the city’s district attorney.
In a statement, San Francisco Mayor London Breed called the homicide “a horrible tragedy” and said that the city is prioritizing public safety.
“I’m confident that when the police make an arrest in cases like this, our district attorney will do what’s necessary to hold any individuals accountable for their actions,” she said.
Boilerplate sentiments. Because as crime victims around the country know all too well, the criminals are often treated as the ones who have been wronged. The need to get violent criminals off the street and punished for their crimes runs afoul of powerful pols who want to abolish prisons, defund the police, and open jail doors.
Lee was a millionaire, most crime victims are not. Yet their families are united in grief, their friends equally devastated by their loss.
Whether it’s in San Francisco, Boston or beyond, holding criminals accountable is vital for a safe, thriving society. The places where “this sort of thing doesn’t happen” is shrinking.
