Bob Lee murder was 12th in area of San Francisco this year

The San Francisco neighborhood where Cash App founder Bob Lee was stabbed to death had at least 12 murders so far this year and is “severely lacking” in police presence, a top police union official told The Post.

Lee’s brutal attack was just one of four stabbing incidents which occurred earlier this week in the Democrat-run city’s Southern and Tenderloin Districts, which have been plagued with rising crime rates, said Lt. Tracy McCray, vice president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association.

“We are short staffed so just our presence in patrolling is severely lacking right now. To see a certain uptick in crime is to be expected but I think we are now at a precipice where we could go one way or the other,” McCray said.

Lee, 43, was stabbed multiple times in the chest early Tuesday morning at about 2:35 a.m. as he walked in the city’s posh Rincon Hill neighborhood, which is in the Southern District and near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Chilling 911 audio revealed Lee screamed for help as he bled out on the street in front of a residential building called the Portside at the 300 block of Main Street.

Video footage showed the tech mogul holding his cell phone and desperately flagging down passing cars before collapsing.

No arrests have been made and San Francisco Police have yet to release a description of possible suspects.

“We have not released any video surveillance or photos so we can’t confirm or comment on any images or videos at this point,” said Allison Maxie, spokeswoman for SFPD, told The Post on Friday.

According to police statistics, robbery in the Southern District, which includes Rincon Hill, has increased by about 14 percent compared to last year. From January to April 2, there have been 12 homicides in the area.

Violent crimes also saw an uptick of 7.5% over the past three years throughout San Francisco, while property crime has exploded to 20.7% over the past three years, according to crime stats.

While overall violent crime fell 13.6% from 2019 to 2022, homicides rose 36.6%, from 41 to 56 in the city of 815,000.

San Francisco’s rising crime rates helped fuel last year’s recall efforts against progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who was ousted over his soft-on-crime policies.

Locals said the Rincon area where Lee was killed boasts multimillion dollar high rise apartments where tech industry moguls, celebrities and members of the Golden State Warriors basketball team have been known to live. 

Although the neighborhood is usually quiet, they fear residents and visitors could easily become victims.

“You see people around here with really nice cars and dress really well, and they could be a target,” a local told The Post. “When I heard what happened to him [Lee], the first thing that came to my head was, ‘What would he be doing here around that time?’ You do see people from all walks of life around here but what was a super wealthy person like him doing wandering the streets like that? It doesn’t make sense.”