Cash App founder Bob Lee died on operating table after medics stapled his heart
San Francisco medical staff worked tirelessly for over four hours trying to save Cash App founder Bob Lee’s life — stapling his heart and placing a chest tube in him before he passed away on an operating table, autopsy records show.
Lee was visiting the city when he was stabbed three times early April 4 and left for dead. The 43-year-old divorced tech boss made a frantic 911 call just after 2:35 a.m. to seek help, before collapsing to the ground in front of a residential apartment.
Officers with the San Francisco Police Department and paramedics were on the scene by 2:40 a.m. administering CPR, although Lee was unconscious, “pulseless” and had labored breathing, according to a Medical Examiner/Investigator’s Report released late Monday.
Lee was raced to San Francisco General Hospital, where he was brought into the emergency room and medics swiftly began “massive transfusion protocol” before ER staff performed a thoracotomy — a large cut along the left side of the chest.
In doing so, they were able to see two injuries to Lee’s heart, which they stapled shut.
They began massaging his heart and gave him a dose of adrenaline before rushing him to the operating room.
Surgeons found Lee had suffered injuries to his heart’s right ventricle and his lungs. They placed chest tubes inside and continued working on him until 6:49 a.m., when they ultimately pronounced him dead, the report states.
Pathologist Dr. Ellen G. Moffatt performed an autopsy on April 5 and 6 and ultimately ruled Lee’s death a homicide caused by the multiple stab wounds.
An acquaintance, Nima Momeni, has since been charged with Lee’s murder and police said they recovered a kitchen knife used to stab him from the scene.
Lee had cocaine and ketamine in his system at the time of his death, as well as traces of alcohol and allergy medicine, according to postmortem medical tests.
Lee, formerly a C-suite executive at Square, was visiting San Francisco from Miami in the days before the attack. He spent the late afternoon of April 3 at an apartment on Mission Street, where he drank with friends, including Momeni’s sister, Khazar “Tina” Elyassnia, according to prosecutors’ motion to deny bond.
Lee and a friend later left the apartment and went to Lee’s room at the 1 Hotel San Francisco.
The friend, identified in the motion as “Witness 1,” told police Lee had a conversation in the hotel room about Momeni picking up his sister from the apartment where they had been.
“Witness 1 said [Momeni] was questioning [Lee] regarding whether his sister was doing drugs or anything inappropriate,” the motion states.
Investigators said they learned Lee and Elyassnia, who was married, had known each other for years.
Lee allegedly assured Momeni nothing “inappropriate” had happened before he continued his night.
Hours later, Lee left his friend, and was seen entering Elyassnia’s apartment around 12:39 a.m. Surveillance footage also shows Lee and Momeni riding an elevator down to the lobby of Elyassnia’s apartment building shortly after 2 a.m. and climbing into Momeni’s white BMW, the document states.
“There’s a male screaming ‘Help,’ saying ‘Someone stabbed me.'”
911 dispatcher
Video then shows the pair inside the BMW as it arrives at a “dark and secluded area” on Main Street, near where a bloodied Lee was later found. Prosecutors allege that both men left the car and Momeni stabbed Lee.
The former Cash App boss was later seen in different video footage staggering toward a car, then the Portside apartment building on Main Street. According to video footage, he tried to use the building’s intercom system before he collapsed to the ground.
In 911 call audio obtained by The Post, a dispatcher can be heard describing, “There’s a male screaming ‘Help,’ saying ‘Someone stabbed me’ … Advised, he is bleeding out. He’s outside on the street.”
Police later watched the alleged attacker stop at a nearby fence line, and recovered a 4-inch kitchen knife with a black blade.
Momeni faces a murder charge in connection with Lee’s knifing and is expected to appear in court Tuesday afternoon for his arraignment.
