Tech consultant arrested over fatal stabbing of Cash App founder
A self-proclaimed tech consultant has been arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee in San Francisco.
Nima Momeni, 38, was arrested on suspicion of murder, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said during a news conference.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said Momeni will be charged with murder in Mr Lee’s death and is expected to be arraigned on Friday.
Mr Scott declined to give details on how they linked the death to Momeni or how the men knew each other.
The chief also refused to disclose a possible motive for the killing.
San Francisco Board President Aaron Peskin announced the suspect’s arrest in the suburb of Emeryville.
Ms Jenkins also criticised Elon Musk for tweets he posted about the death of Mr Lee.
Musk responded to the killing with a tweet replying to another user saying: “Violent crime in SF is horrific and even if attackers are caught, they are often released immediately.”
He added that the city should take stronger action to incarcerate repeated violent offenders, and he tagged Jenkins’ Twitter account.
Elon Musk condemns ‘horrific’ fatal stabbing of Cash App founder
Ms Jenkins called the Twitter owner reckless when he suggested that “repeat violent offenders” were involved.
“Reckless and irresponsible statements like those contained in Mr Musk’s tweet – that assumed incorrect circumstances about Mr Lee’s death – served to mislead the world in its perceptions of San Francisco,” Ms Jenkins said.
The statements “also negatively impact the pursuit of justice for victims of crime, as it spreads misinformation at a time when the police are trying to solve a very difficult case”, she said.
Police found Mr Lee with stab wounds in the Rincon Hill neighbourhood of San Francisco at 2.30am on 4 April. He died in hospital.
Mr Lee is known for creating the widely used mobile payment service Cash App while working as chief technology officer of the payment company Square, now known as Block. He was the chief product officer for the cryptocurrency firm MobileCoin at the time of his death.
On his LinkedIn profile, Momeni describes himself as an IT Consultant/Entrepreneur as well as “owner” at a company called Expand IT.
