The moments following the San Francisco stabbing attack of Cash App founder Bob Lee were captured on surveillance video and in a 911 call to authorities, according to a local Bay Area news portal.
The surveillance footage, reviewed by the online news site The San Francisco Standard, was recorded early Tuesday morning in the Rincon Hill neighborhood 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 Standard also reviewed records of a 911 call Lee made at 2:34 a.m. Tuesday morning screaming “Help, someone stabbed me!”
The Standard does not indicate where the surveillance was taken from and it is not clear what time frame it captures after Lee was stabbed.
The San Francisco Police did not immediately respond to questions about the video and 911 call, but the department chief William Scott released a statement Wednesday with his condolences to Lee’s family.
Speaking to CNN affiliate KPIX Thursday, Scott said it was too early to tell if the attack was targeted or random, but the homicide team was “working tirelessly to get this to a resolution.”
“We have a lot that’s on our plate with this investigation and following up on things that need to be followed up on,” he told KPIX. “We’ll put the information out, but we don’t want to do anything to compromise this investigation.”
‘Something isn’t working in our grey city’
San Francisco Mayor London Breed reacted to the news of Lee’s death in a statement Wednesday, calling it “a horrible tragedy” and emphasizing her commitment to prioritizing safety in a city that has been marred by an uptick in crime as it bounces back from the pandemic.
“San Francisco is prioritizing public safety, including recently passing our budget supplemental so we have the police staffing necessary to have more police officers in our neighborhoods and to investigate violent crimes when they do occur,” Mayor Breed said in a statement.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins also released a statement reacting to Lee’s death, first extending her condolences to Lee’s family and then doubling down on her commitment to “protecting public safety.”
“Protecting public safety & holding violent/repeat offenders accountable is a top priority for my administration,” she said in a Twitter thread Wednesday afternoon. “No one who commits a violent crime, or who’s a repeat offender are receiving overly lenient plea deals.”
Her comments appear to be in response to Twitter’s new owner, billionaire Elon Musk. Musk tweeted at Jenkins Wednesday as he reacted to news of the death that sent shockwaves through the tech community and beyond.
“Violent crime in SF is horrific and even if attackers are caught, they are often released immediately,” Musk wrote, asking Jenkins if the city is taking “stronger action to incarcerate repeat violent offenders.”
Preliminary police data reports 12 homicides in San Francisco this year, an uptick of 20% compared to the same period in the previous year. In total, there were 56 homicides in San Francisco in 2022, the same as in 2021.
Asked about crime rates in San Francisco, Scott told KPIX that homicides had been falling but went up during the pandemic, which was a nationwide trend.
“When you [look] at San Francisco’s violent crime rate compared to other cities per 100,000 [in population], we’re towards the bottom for major cities,” the police chief said. “That never gets talked about.”
“We have our issues with our city,” he continued. “We have some things we definitely have to continue to work on. We have these images that go viral and are posted all over the world dealing with drug use and homelessness. Those are real issues in our city and we’re addressing that too. But violent crime? We’re not that city.”
Josh Goldbard, the CEO of Lee’s employer, MobileCoin, reflected on the loss of his friend in a Twitter thread that also called out the need to “fix” what’s apparently going wrong in his hometown.
“As a lifelong Bay Area resident I have more questions than answers,” he wrote. “I don’t know how to fix what’s wrong, but I know something isn’t working in our grey city.”
“Bob left this world too soon,” he added.
— CNN’s Catherine Thorbecke contributed reporting.
