SAN FRANCISCO — Nine days after the fatal overnight stabbing of Bob Lee sparked an outcry about public safety in San Francisco, police said Thursday they had arrested an acquaintance of the tech executive on suspicion of murder.
In a news conference, the city’s police chief, Bill Scott, identified the suspect as Nima Momeni, 38, a technical adviser who knew Mr. Lee. Surveillance footage from the night of the murder shows Mr. Lee staggering and clinging to the side near a car near a car around 2:30 a.m. on April 4, in a residential area with high-rise buildings.
The owner of a technology company in the East Bay town of Emeryville, Mr. Momeni, was arrested there after an intensive investigation in which authorities had warned from the outset that Mr. Lee may have been killed by someone he knew and not at one random street crime. Mr. Momeni was booked into the San Francisco County Jail on Thursday morning for murder, according to jail records.
Thursday’s development undermined a growing narrative that the murder reflected a city where the professional class was threatened by indiscriminate attacks and a flawed approach to criminal justice.
Scott Wiener, a Democratic senator representing the city, said the rush to rule by tech luminaries like Elon Musk and colleagues from Mr. Lee, a well-known figure in Silicon Valley, has been both inaccurate and damaging to San Francisco, which has been struggling to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
“That’s the danger of turning a crime into a symbol,” said Mr. Wiener. “This was a horrific, brutal murder and I am so grateful that the police solved it so quickly. And San Francisco has real public safety problems. But this particular crime doesn’t seem to have anything to do with them.”
Still, the narrative lingered even as news of the arrest spread Thursday. Jason Calacanis, a tech investor and entrepreneur, tweeted, “*Everyone* has said we don’t know the details of a single case, as has anyone who walks a few blocks in San Francisco (outside Pac Whites) where things shine.” strange to be sure) knows how dangerous the city is,” colloquially referring to the affluent neighborhood of Pacific Heights.
The arrest ended days of speculation about the death of Mr. Lee, 43, an engineering executive, who was found bleeding on a sidewalk near the Embarcadero by emergency crews at around 2:35 am on April 4.
Authorities said Mr Lee, a father of two who recently relocated to Miami after spending most of his career in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, was in San Francisco on business when he was attacked.
The murder has sparked allegations and heightened tensions between the city and its tech sector at a precarious moment as San Francisco struggles to revitalize its downtown area.
San Francisco, which has been emptied of office workers for the past three years, has seen an increase in tent camps and outdoor drug use in its public spaces, fueling complaints that the city’s compassion for the homeless and mentally ill is hampering its ability to maintain order, made difficult. Property crimes have risen during the pandemic, and enough voters felt unsafe that they ousted local prosecutor Chesa Boudin last year.
But violent crime rates have fallen or remained stable in the city of about 808,000 in recent years. Some city officials said last week San Francisco had been unfairly slandered by conservatives and tech leaders, and Thursday’s arrest of an acquaintance confirmed that.
“Therefore, you must wait for investigations before jumping to conclusions,” said Kevin Benedicto, a police commissioner who lashed out at critics after the murder, accusing that a small minority tried “to weaponize this tragedy” for political reasons “.
In the emotional aftermath of the murder, high-profile figures such as Mr. Musk, CEO of Twitter and Tesla, and Michael Arrington, founder of industry blog TechCrunch, blamed the city for Mr. Lee’s death. City officials agreed that parts of the city needed to be made safer, but disputed claims that San Francisco was a hotbed of violence.
San Francisco recorded 56 homicides in 2017 before some violent crime declined during the pandemic; In 2021 and 2022, the number of homicides rose again to 56, according to the city’s police department. In the quarter before Mr. Lee’s death, the city had a dozen homicides, two more than the year before.
However, the high-profile crime has continued to highlight the city’s problems. For example, days after Mr. Lee was killed, a former firefighter in the Marina District was attacked with a metal pipe and hospitalized; The victim’s family blamed a camp of homeless people that he had tried to evict from the upscale neighborhood. In March, the San Francisco board of directors approved a request from Mayor London Breed to spend an additional $25 million on police overtime.
Bay Area public relations manager Sam Singer is Mr. Momeni’s neighbor in a century-old steam engine factory in Emeryville, across from San Francisco, that has been converted into offices.
Mr Singer described Mr Momeni as a good neighbor, “bright, hardworking, charming”. Mr. Momeni’s office space was “a classic San Francisco Bay Area tech office,” with a pool table, high-end stereo, and gourmet food in the kitchen, Mr. Singer said.
According to Mr. Momeni’s business card, his business focuses on computer server management, cyber security and general IT support.
Mr. Lee was known to his friends and relatives as a kind, brilliant man and generous mentor, but also as an immensely energetic and social person who could be absent late even during the weekdays. His online name was “Crazy Bob,” a nickname he earned playing water polo in his youth.
He had first come to prominence as chief technology officer at payments firm Square — which changed its name to Block in 2021 — and then at MobileCoin, a San Francisco-based cryptocurrency startup, where he was chief product officer at the time of his death. Colleagues said Mr. Lee was also instrumental in the development of the Cash App mobile payment service.
Like the Marina District attack, Mr. Lee’s stabbing happened in an upscale part of town. A quiet neighborhood popular with tech workers, the area is close to downtown and not far from Google’s offices and Oracle Park stadium, home of the San Francisco Giants.
The neighborhood is a tech hub, and during the day caters to techs and other professionals with pour-over coffee shops, take-out counters, and a grocery store. But the streets tend to empty after dark as residents retreat to skyscraper condos.
Before moving to Miami — he told friends he liked the energy of the city’s tech startups — Mr. Lee lived in Mill Valley, an affluent community about 15 miles north of San Francisco in Marin County. In social media posts, his father wrote that he shared a house with his son after the death of his wife, Mr. Lee’s mother.
“Life has been an adventure with two bachelors living together and I’m so happy we’ve become so close over the past few years,” the father, Rick Lee, posted on Facebook. “Bob would give you the shirt off his back. He would never look down on anyone and adhered to a strict philosophy of non-judgment.”
Friends said Bob Lee had just finished his trip to San Francisco when he was attacked. Footage from nearby surveillance cameras, shared with news outlets and local authorities immediately after the killing, appeared to show him staggering down the nearly deserted street, pushing buttons on the security doors of a luxury apartment building and unsuccessfully attempting to wave vehicles past.
“He was drawn to big, transformative challenges, and through his work he changed the world of mobile payments for all of us,” said Ron Conway, a prominent venture capitalist and political contributor to local Democratic candidates. “His murder is a great loss to the tech community and my heart breaks for Bob’s family.”
Kalley Huang, Tim Arango and Kate Conger contributed coverage. Susan C. Beachy contributed to the research.
