Men seen taking pics in Vancouver mall sought

The incident began Thursday evening after Vancity Buzz, a local news and culture website, published an article saying that police were looking to speak with three men after they were spotted taking photos of entrances and exits at Pacific Centre mall.

On Saturday, the topic trended both on Facebook and Twitter in Vancouver as users expressed outrage about what they described as the racial profiling of Mohammed Sharaz, Salahuddin Sharaz and Mohammed Kareem.

“I’ve got no complaints because I’ve been reading comments online”.

Despite the leak, Palmer said his force will not change the way it shares information with other forces.

“The problem is when [media] published our photos naively or whatever, as soon as we saw the pictures, our faces are not blurred out”.

He said despite the three complaining their pictures were widely circulated, they have accepted his assurances something like this will not happen again.

“Vancouver Police have identified and spoken to the three men seen in security footage at Pacific Centre Mall”, reads a VPD release.

The men contacted the VPD shortly after and were quickly cleared of any wrongdoing.

“I understand the gravity of the situation and investigations”, he said.

“We have no idea if these people were just tourists in town taking photographs”.

Another user, Jenna Marion, reflected on what she found to be a “sad moment” for Canada. Millions of cell phone users take selfies, snap landscapes, and shoot photos of things they find interesting; but what three men were caught doing in a Vancouver shopping mall has the authorities searching for answers.

Palmer urged the men to come forward and meet police. For this reason, the VPD has not, and will not, be releasing any photographs at this time.

Some were upset that media outlets across the city, including CBC, initially posted non-blurred images of the men.

“I’m pointing directly at Vancity Buzz for stirring up controversy”.

The trio are now reportedly too scared to leave their hotel rooms for fear of harassment, and have not been out except for treatment.

“I felt extremely sad that we had taken two handicapped people and turned them into essentially part of a terrorist investigation by innuendo”, said journalist Salim Jiwa.