Cash App founder stabbed – latest: Bob Lee argued over Nima Momeni’s sister before murder, court told

Violent crime and homicide is much lower in San Francisco than in many other large US cities, according to local and FBI crime data.

The northern California city reported 6.9 homicides per 100,000 people in 2021. That compares to 66 in St Louis, 47 in Detroit and 10 in Los Angeles.

But many city residents say the city has failed to deal with a rampant homelessness and drug use. Police crime data shows that motor vehicle theft and burglary are up significantly from last year.

Of the 13 homicides reported in San Francisco this year, just three have been solved, according to an analysis by ABC7.

The city’s homicide clearance rate over the past few years appears to closely track the number of sworn officers.

In 2021, the most recent year that records are available, 77 per cent of the 56 homicides that occurred in the city were solved. The city had 2,129 sworn officers that year.

In 2018, when San Francisco had 2,306 officers, the police department cleared a record high 96 percent of its 46 reported homicides.

Mayor Breed said earlier this week that San Francisco is at least 500 officers short, adding that applications were improving after she announced an increase in salary rates.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed spoke about the safety issues in the city on Saturday 8 April following the stabbing death of Mr Lee and the attack on the former fire commissioner.

Ms Breed was taking questions at the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival, according to ABC7.

Regarding the perception among some that violent crime was taking over San Francisco, Ms Breed said that the city is taking steps to address the issue, such as $25m in funding for police overtime.

“It continues to allow us to do our jobs here and to make sure we’re not only out on the streets to respond to calls for service, but it provides us the ability to do these investigations around the clock,” Ms Breed said.

The city’s police department is more than 500 officers short but the mayor said more applications to join the force are coming in.

“We’re starting to see those applications come in,” she said, adding that a request has been sent to the federal government to help deal with the sale of drugs.

“It looks as though we are probably going to get some support from hopefully the state and federal government and we’ll be able to make that clear what that entails,” she said.

Supervisor Dean Preson represents the Tenderloin District.

“There were stabbings and shootings in my district the Tenderloin over this last week as well, including a homicide, this is obviously incredibly disturbing,” he said, according to ABC7.

The mayor added that “we need to really go aggressively against open-air drug dealing in the Tenderloin not just from a local level, but a state and federal level and I think when that support kicks in it’s going to be a new day in San Francisco”.

The San Francisco police Commissioner Kevin Benedicto said at a meeting of the commission earlier this week that some social media users “are exploiting this horrific incident for political gain”.

“A small minority has tried to weaponize this tragedy to advance a narrative about a crime wave that just isn’t borne out by the data in San Francisco,” he added on Thursday, according to The New York Times.

“There are real problems about crime that need to be addressed in San Francisco,” he told the paper. “But you’re seeing people from tech, from certain political circles, who are trying to draw explicit connections to certain policies and elected officials when we don’t even yet know the facts of the case.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed spoke about the safety issues in the city on Saturday 8 April following the stabbing death of Mr Lee and the attack on the former fire commissioner.

Ms Breed was taking questions at the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival, according to ABC7.

“I want to start by making it clear that in both of these cases, the information is still not yet public – they’re under investigation,” she said.

She urged the public to not get ahead of the facts.

“When the facts of many of these cases come out, many people are going to be surprised,” the mayor said, adding that social media has been a platform where the safety in the city has been questioned.

“It has really heightened events like this as well as people jumping to conclusions about what they think is happening,” she said.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed spoke about the safety issues in the city on Saturday 8 April following the stabbing death of Mr Lee and the attack on the former fire commissioner.

Ms Breed was taking questions at the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival, according to ABC7.

Regarding the perception among some that violent crime was taking over San Francisco, Ms Breed said that the city is taking steps to address the issue, such as $25m in funding for police overtime.

“It continues to allow us to do our jobs here and to make sure we’re not only out on the streets to respond to calls for service, but it provides us the ability to do these investigations around the clock,” Ms Breed said.

The city’s police department is more than 500 officers short but the mayor said more applications to join the force are coming in.

“We’re starting to see those applications come in,” she said, adding that a request has been sent to the federal government to help deal with the sale of drugs.

“It looks as though we are probably going to get some support from hopefully the state and federal government and we’ll be able to make that clear what that entails,” she said.

Supervisor Dean Preson represents the Tenderloin District.

“There were stabbings and shootings in my district the Tenderloin over this last week as well, including a homicide, this is obviously incredibly disturbing,” he said, according to ABC7.

The mayor added that “we need to really go aggressively against open-air drug dealing in the Tenderloin not just from a local level, but a state and federal level and I think when that support kicks in it’s going to be a new day in San Francisco”.

Police have not yet confirmed the identity of the suspect, but the Mission Local news site reports that the person worked in the tech industry and was known to Lee.

Lee, the chief product officer at MobileCoin, had been visiting San Francisco for a tech conference from Miami when he was fatally wounded.

According to the Mission Local, Lee and the suspect had been in a car together in the early hours of 4 April when a fight broke out between the pair.

Citing police sources, the news site alleges that the tech executive stabbed Lee twice outside the vehicle, and a knife was found nearby the 300 block of Main St where he was found by responding officers.

According to reports, the fatal attack was not a robbery attack or a random mugging.

The suspect was reportedly arrested at an address in Emeryville, a city in the Bay Area, early on Thursday.

The San Francisco Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

His final tragic moments as he stumbled, mortally wounded, down Main St in San Francisco’s downtown district in search of help were captured on surveillance footage.

Bob Lee’s wife says that the suspect in her husband’s killing is a man from Emeryville, California, reported KTVU.

“This is the first step toward justice,” Ms Lee said from her home in Miami, where Bob Lee had moved from Mill Valley, California, last year.

The news station said it was withholding the name of the suspect, given to them by Ms Lee, until authorities confirmed it.

Nima Momeni has been charged with the murder, according to county jail records.