San Francisco District Attorney Takes Aim at Elon Musk Over Murder Allegations

Cash App cofounder Bob Lee was found stabbed to death in a deserted part of downtown San Francisco in the early morning hours of April 4.

The incident, which received huge amounts of media attention, led Silicon Valley leaders to come out in force, decrying the state of violent crime in the city. Some tech execs started pointing fingers, arguing that homelessness had spiraled out of control and that the rich were being unfairly targeted.

"Many people I know have been severely assaulted," Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who has already made himself immensely unpopular in the city, chimed in.

Musk went as far as to blame law enforcement for not doing enough.

"Violent crime in SF is horrific and even if attackers are caught, they are often released immediately," he added.

But, as it turns out, Lee was likely not the victim of a random attack by a homeless person. In fact, the San Francisco Police Department arrested a suspect on Thursday, a man and fellow tech exec Lee not only knew personally but may have been in a car with just hours before his murder.

In other words, Musk was way out of line with his reaction, angering some authorities.

During the SFPD's announcement about their arrest on Thursday, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins didn't mince words.

Musk's "reckless and irresponsible statements," which "assumed incorrect circumstances about Mr. Lee's death," only "serve to mislead the world in their perceptions of San Francisco and 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.

In fact, she said, the Twitter CEO's unnecessary comments ended up hindering the police's operations.

"Since this incident happened, since waking up to Elon Musk's tweet, my office has worked hard to actually tell people not to make assumptions about this case," Jenkins said. "We knew nothing about the facts of this case immediately after it happened."

The topics of crime and homelessness in San Francisco have been particularly contentious as of late, with some startups starting to take an interest in local politics to address the issue.

Musk himself recently claimed in a rare live interview with the BBC earlier this week that "we tried to turn [Twitter HQ] into a homeless shelter and the building management, building owner rejected it."

When pressed about what those plans were, however, Musks didn't have much of an answer, indicating that perhaps not a lot of thought had gone into the initiative.

"I don’t know, we could just let people stay there," he told the BBC. "It's nice... They can bring their stuff, bring their tent, whatever."

More on the incident: Murdered Tech CEO May Have Been Stabbed to Death by Tech Exec He Knew