In San Francisco, police are hunting a teenager who was seen setting a woman’s hair on fire on a city bus.
Police authorities released footage of the scene that was captured on the Muni bus’s security camera and asked for the public’s help in identifying the teen.
However, their plea quickly backfired to them for blurring the teenager’s face, making him impossible to recognize.
Neither the suspect nor the victim has been identified as of today and police said both are wanted for questioning.
The incident happened on May 2 at around 2.25 pm aboard the No. 5 Fulton Street Muni bus.
The Muni bus driver called the SFPD to report the incident, but by the time police arrived nearby McAllister and Leavenworth streets, both the suspect and the victim were gone.
In the footage released by the SFPD, the suspect can be seen holding a lighter to the back of the woman’s head. The teen, along with two other persons of interest, left the bus altogether before fleeing eastbound on McAllister Street.
The other passengers assisted the victim, but they already left the scene before the officers arrived to question them.
SFPD noted the difficulty in finding a suspect when they don’t know who the victim is, so they are asking the woman to come forward to provide a statement.
“We have not made any arrests,” SFPD spokesperson Adam Lobsinger said. “We are still looking for the suspects. Without the victim, when we catch the suspects, it’s harder to do anything.”
However, SFPD was heavily criticized on their Twitter post by commenters who questioned the need to blur out the teenager’s face.
“Uhm…wtf…help us identify this man with his face blurred out so we don’t offend anyone?” one Twitter user asked.
“Maybe if you don’t blur out the face it’ll be easier for the public to help identify this person” another person tweeted.
“Sorry, haven’t seen any people with blurry faces EVER!” a third person wrote.
“Thank you for protecting the face of the CRIMINAL.. what’s wrong with our system,” another commenter added.
According to the police, the victim was described as a female of Filipino or Latin descent, between the ages of 50 and 60, with dark hair and eyeglasses.
While police described the teenage suspect as a male who was last seen wearing a red long sleeve shirt with a colored logo on the front, along with matching red pants and a black backpack.