Arrest made in SF killing of Bob Lee — tech exec’s alleged killer also worked in tech

Don’t really care how you spun it, the city is not safe.

We left SF over 12 years ago and never looked back. At that time the homelessness was starting to pervade all neighborhoods migrating from the onramp to 80. Then the car break started happening, porch robberies, and police non-response. The problem is two entities, London Breed and her non-support of police and the Board of Supervisors (Stupidvisors) policies. Property values decreasing and migration out increasing. Hawaii is a much better place, less taxes, better governance, and reasonable and responsible for those living here.

As a first time reader I am taken as to the slant that fails to address the real fear of citizens in major cities throughout the U.S
It seems you have focused on homicides which are declining but that is classic journalist slant which the focus on the ultimate crime of murder. S.F needs real enforcement of laws and incarcerate the offenders not make excuses and put them in the revolving door. I will not visit S.F which is sad because the 2 times I visited many years my wife and I agreed what an amazing place. Shameful that politicians seem focused on making slave reparations while the city smells of feces and overlun with indigents and drug dealing miscreants.

Also it need to be said the parameters of what’s considered crime have changed so what would have been considered a crime in the 80’s-90’s isn’t anymore so they can say ‘look, it was worse before.’ No, they just prosecuted more before

Thank you Mission Local for this news. I am in continuous awe of the many people who drew all kinds of draconian policy and political conclusions on social media about the Bob Lee tragedy based on no solid information whatsoever about why he was murdered. Free advice: when sh1t like this comes down, keep your own counsel until at least one more shoe drops. We still don’t even know why the alleged killer did what he is alleged to have done. Since it is fashionable to quote Marcus Aurelius these days, I’ll run with the pack: "You always own the option of having no opinion." Or, at least put off owning it until you own some facts.

LOL at all the dumb conservatives who slammed SF when this happened and now have to make justifications here to say ‘SF is still horrible’ despite it having low violent crime for a city it’s size. Republicans today remain completely disconnected from reality and constantly determined to play the fear and blame game to demonize anyone who doesn’t believe what they do. All you people here saying ‘But it’s still a sign SF is horrible’ look like the chumps you are. Just letting you know.

Congratulations, Your story was announced on Fox News this morning.

I had the pleasure of visiting S.F. two summers ago. Beautiful climate. Very quiet due to needless covid lockdowns. Sadly, fecal matter was on city side walks and the things I wanted to see most were not in use. Trolleys.

Oh my gosh—SF has only eight remaining Whole Food stores remaining?? Talk about a crisis!

They were in the car together and the guy stabbed him? What, Nima Momeni just carry a knife around with him? This may turn out to be premeditated.

The broader point is that lawlessness in San Francisco is so bad that people assume it’s the cause of things it might not be (eg this murder). On my block in the mission in the last several months, we’ve had two crimes at gunpoint: a carjacking and the robbery of a muralist of all his paints. The muralist was made to get on his knees. Lots of stores are closing, citing crime and employee safety. Whole Foods is not an isolated incident. Misdemeanor theft, pubic drug use, and the sale of obviously stolen goods are rampant. The area near the 24th Street and Mission is a cesspool. No one would willingly bring a child near there. Safe and enjoyable streets are the foundation of any city. We need them regardless of who killed Bob Lee. SF is on the fast track to becoming mid 1970’s New York, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, dangerous, and a horrible place to live. If remote work had been possible then, NYC would have been totally left for dead.

this fits in to the theory of that beware of those you know more than strangers.

Incredibly fair and well written article. Thank you Joe

Also, it speaks volumes that a guy felt that it was safe enough to commit a murder in a well-off area of SF, thinking that he’d likely get away because of the endless amount of crimes that he’d be able to hide his actions in.

It is still an effect of the overall stress in S.F. It shouldn’t count as ‘violent’ only when the culprit is not white.

So is this article even about the murder of Bob Lee? Seems like its more like a gotcha piece to call out people who assumed his murder was done by a random criminal. Nice work using the murder of a great guy to call out the right and attempt to pretend like everything’s great in SF. This should be labeled an editorial.

Nice reporting! Thank you for the context and historic data.

I wish all reporting included such relevant information. But then… that takes actual work and an understanding of the subject matter. I especially appreciate the line about previous pepper-spraying of people experiencing homelessness.

FWIW: Labeling someone as a "homeless person" implies that is who they are as opposed to a condition they are living through at the time. People can experience homelessness, be undocumented or be enslaved. There is no such thing as homeless person, illegal alien or slave. We are all human and should be addressed as such.

Discussing this with friends when this happened. Strong feeling this was no random act of murder. Guys come back to San Francisco after relocating from this violent city. Then has the worse luck of returning for a visit and get murdered. Just ashame the whole situation. However, SF policing in city is just subpar. Calling 911 and taking hours for response. Robbery in progress calls no response. Street racing and car shows no response, criminal being caught in act of committing a crime being release. I understand your appeal more funding but your not doing basic policing currently. It ashame when you cant get police after 911 call.

That’s such a shame. Prosecute the scumbag who murdered Bob Lee, send him to jail and throw away the key. With a little luck maybe the same will happen to him

Thank you for the update & for reminding us of the other 11 people murdered on our streets this year/

It would be interesting to know how much effort has been devoted to solve the other 11 2023 SF murders? Is this data that is available to the public?

Thankfully the word Biblically was
was not in the story.

Kinda why it took so long for him to get help didn’t he even try a cab

"the abrupt closure of the mid-market Whole Foods, leaving San Franciscans just eight other Whole Foods within city limits"

Hahahahaha perfect.

Possibly of interest, the suspect — who lists his alma mater as Cal — is not a Cal grad at all. This is easily verifiable by any Cal grad with access to the alumni database (cal.berkeley.edu). For example, as quickly as I could verify that the suspect is not a Cal grad, I was able to also see that the story’s author did graduate from Cal. Then again, maybe the claim on his LinkedIn page was that once, he set foot on campus (or nearby), and learned something (for example, that Top Dog is a good place for a late-night snack), so he felt entitled to gussy up his resume in a misleading manner.

Thank you Joe Eskenazi and Mission Local for your independent, professional,investigative reporting and journalism. While every single other local media outlet (SFChron, the Examiner, the SF Standard, CHRON4, ABC7, KTVU, KPIX) fanned fearful flames and sought to engage by enraging, Mission Local was steady and clear eyed. The other media monkeys aped local and national media garbage talking points to do with "doom spirals" and Gotham. Mission Local did not. So thanks for consistently setting the bar so high and for providing a public service to San Franciscans.

You seem to take pleasure in the circumstances of this man’s tragic death, because it was not, as many worried, just another example of how dangerous and out of control SF has been for three years. But you live in Berkeley so how would you know.

Great reporting. Congrats.

Glad to find out the victim wasn’t killed by a drugged homeless person. Getting killed by a drugged tech executive makes it all better. Guess he’s less dead now or what is the point you are making?

Very much looking forward to hearing how this is still Chesa Boudins fault

Yeah, I also found that the killing was a bit odd. The East Cut is dead after 5-6PM. Also, majority of the residence are luxury apartments/ condos. You don’t see many homeless or trash in that area at all… so makes sense when they say it’s not a robbery etc… also, it doesn’t make sense that someone that rich would be walking home at 2:30AM… pretty odd death… the story they are putting together is making sense though

Very nice update! Both on the specific incident and the broader narrative. Well done.

Well-written and fair article. Much better than most that are on sfgate.

You just never know who you are dealing with or what their agenda is anymore.

I knew this "news" had to include some apologist trash defending the sanctity of the collective concept of the city by victim blaming and mitigating events. But bravo for claiming the junky bum beating a man with a metal rod, did so because he was pepper sprayed, and then implying the VICTIM had been going around randomly pepper spraying poor innocent insane homeless junkies.

Except the part where the junky bum had a metal rod and was in a postion to beat the man on the head, maybe, just maybe, he got pepper sprayed because he was already armed with the rod and attacking. If the only clue being it’s hard to search for and find a metal rod and then beat a man over the head with it if you’re pepper spayed out of the blue. Tends to affect eyesight and concentration you know. A little disorienting is the point. You pathetic crime apologist/enabler commie trash.

Why do you think that this would "color" this incident? you make it sound like the victim deserved this treatment when clearly he was defending himself, and thus no police charge against the victim for pepper-spraying the attacker.

You really just could have caught this off after the first half – but thanks for the reminder that white-guilt ridden liberals think that the city is just fine and that everyone voting for change are just bellyaching

The reason people are fearful in SF is that they don’t find their situations secure, given the risks; they all fear ending up in a tent on a sidewalk from one false move.

While crime in SF is flatish, the rise in visible squalor over the past 15 years is very real. People have taught themselves to ignore the squalorific, substance addled, psych challenged individual as if they were zombies.

So the circle in SF is now complete when a competitive, successful tech billionaire gets stabbed by an acquaintance, cutthroat capitalism indeed, and then ignored by hurried motorists as he staggers bloodied, bleeding out on the street.

I’m liking that Breed is falling flat on her face on KTVU when she is trying to backpedal the doom cycle messaging that worked so well to oust SFUSD commissioners, the DA and which threw tens of millions to the lazy cops.

As ye sow, so shall ye reap. San Franciscans deserve this shitshow until we organize politically to bring about something less cynical and psychopathic.

It’s important that journalist get the story right so people areas and cities are not vilified as being violent or out of control. Journalism has not been very accurate the past seven years starting with the Russia collusion hoax, perpetrated by them for five years. They even got Pulitzer Prize awards for distorted and utterly unfounded reports. I think that affected the country a lot more than a tech executive being stabbed by a competitor.

Crime statistics are always lower when police respond to fewer calls and prosecutors refuse to prosecute. It’s a dishonest numbers game with real consequences for the public at large.

Thanks for the reporting, however, I kindly recommend keeping the editorial content to the opinion pages.

"It is not hard to understand why ‘reforms’ such as ending cash bail, defunding the police, refusing to prosecute entire categories of crimes, letting thousands of convicted felons out of prison early, significantly cutting the prison population, and other ‘progressive’ ideas have led to massive spikes in crime—particularly violent crime, including murder…."
– Heritage Foundation report titled "The Blue City Murder Problem"

27 of the top 30 cities with the highest murder rates as of June 2022 were run by Democratic mayors. Maybe it’s time to give the Republicans a go at running the City.

We need to talk about techie-on-techie crime.

Good to hear the police have made an arrest. It was just a matter of time. Since the police didn’t say that Mr. Lee was robbed and the fact that he was stabbed more than once, I thought the killer very likely was someone who knew Mr. Lee. There likely was video of someone following Mr. Lee so was a solvable case.

Nail on the head reporting

Fantastic reporting…and perspective.

In Florida and across the nation, hack politicians foment anger at drag queens and gays to gain political power, mostly because they have nothing to offer to make life better for everyone, so they aim low, stoking a culture war to justify their existence.

In San Francisco, disgustingly, hack politicians, wealthy tech executives and others blame the homeless for everything wrong with the city. Mayor Breed has presided over the highest budgets that I can remember and yet little is done to improve the situation on the streets, and, given that she blocked multiple efforts to assist the homeless and drug addicted, maybe she needs these issues to persist to justify her holding political office.

Mayor Breed, resign now. And take Dorsey with you.

Really appreciate the context and greater investigative detail in this report! I get that the most straightforward way to report a story is to say "X happened at Y location. Full stop". But, if that’s all that people read, and they happen to read 5 of those articles in a month, their brain will fill in the gaps "Oh there must be an increasing trend". So, while this article does have an agenda outside of reporting the most basic facts, it was really helpful to read "X happened at Y location and here’s more long-term information on X happening at Y locations". It’s a lot of responsibility to provide context in an article, but I appreciate you supplementing this with actual stats instead of just furthering fear-inducing preconceived notions. I hope Lee’s family will be able to receive some amount of closure and justice with this arrest. It’s tragic in and of itself and doesn’t need to be sensationalized and co-opted by news sites gunning for clicks. Again, thanks for a well written update!

My father always told me that "nothing good happens after midnight".

Thank you Joe for this thoughtful detail of events. I’ll tell you what – the idea that rampant violent crime was taking over our city finally put some fire under the belly of city officials because we now see SFPD, Bart police and DPW community liaisons at the 24th street Bart station daily and I’m happy about that. It was a daily shit show no one in City Hall seemed to care about until now.

I find it sad but not surprising that it had to take Bob Lee’s homicide and national attention for our city to wake the fuck up but I’m here for it.

This hardly changes the fact that San Francisco has a real problem with street crime.

This is a dangerous world. Money and power lead people to the edge. Brief moments of anger change the order of things. This is just another sad example of The Eve Effect.

Mad respect for the understaffed SFPD. But this doesn’t mean SF can now continue as usual. This reaction showed middle class people are on the edge and are OVER programs enabling mentally ill and drug addicts to live on our streets as if it is an option. And we’re over drug dealers and store/car thieves being encouraged with a lack of punishment/risk. SF shouldn’t be a welcoming environment/magnet for those people and activities. That said, I’m now a bigger fan of SFPD and for increasing their funding to where it needs to be for a city our size.

I love it. Made my day. What’s of note are the "tech luminaries" that pride themselves on advanced AI driven decision making and then instead of using data-driven insights to explore possible scenarios for the unfortunate death of Mr. Lee, they simply make up a story that best fits their view. Like moths flying to light. It’s why I know none of us, not even Musk, is really all that smart.

Time to get tough on "tech"..

Regardless of the circumstances of this particular crime, this story veers way too close to being dismissive of the obvious deterioration of San Francisco. I was a resident for many years, moved away in 2010 and didn’t return to visit until this year. I was shocked and saddened by what I saw. The filth. The tolerance of street crime that has eroded quality of life. Disregard of residents, small business owners and the human life that inhabit the streets. Total mismanagement. Utter negligence. Local leaders should be ashamed. This city is a total mess and it’s embarrassing that this writer is using the presumably incorrect assumptions about Lee’s tragic death as an opportunity to weave an alternative narrative.

I just want to acknowledge the writing:
"the abrupt closure of the mid-market Whole Foods, leaving San Franciscans just eight other Whole Foods within city limits"

come on Joe. people who live in sf know better. the park 2 blocks from my house has had at least 5 bodies discovered in it in the last 5 years. a man is living there right now defecating in front of children and throwing his garbage all around him. we see the videos of people blatantly stealing large bags of merchandise in the stores and we see the stores closing. we see human feces and needles on the sidewalks and people shooting up. do you even live in sf? don’t try to shove your BS on us

Look, I don’t have anything against tech executives. I don’t have an anti-tech bone in my body. Some of my best friends are tech execs. But these people are all the same. You know this had to be a crypto deal gone wrong.

Not surprising, but the state of the city also shouldn’t be surprising or sugar coated. It needs change and it needs it now.

Thanks for the update. Do you think Joel Engardio or any of the tech luminaries will retract their statements and apologize to Chesa Boudin for all their Fox-news BS narratives? Also let’s watch the Carmignani incident closely before the tired story that all homeless and poor are violent, drug-addled criminals. Carmignani was appointed SF Fire Commissioner by Ed Lee, served barely 5 months when he was forced to resign after being arrested for felony domestic violence. So clearly, he is a violent individual.

Well, I am the mother of the 15-year-old boy executed by a Now San Francisco police officer (JOSHAWA CABILLO) I feel like if the police department was not held accountable for their actions, why should SF ‘s community care about crime! against first responders?

Very fair reporting