Police are asking the public's help to identify a man accused of calling a man wearing a keffiyeh a "terrorist" and threatening him with violence outside a Canberra shopping centre.
It comes after Shane Bazzi, a Lebanese-Australian man from Sydney, shared a video of the incident on social media claiming police had not progressed his complaint against the unidentified man.
Mr Bazzi told The Canberra Times he was wearing a keffiyeh and a hoodie featuring the Palestine flag when the stranger allegedly accosted him outside the Canberra Centre on Bunda Street.
Mr Bazzi, a candidate for the NSW Legislative Council for the Greens, said the incident outside the mall occurred on July 21, 2025, when he had travelled to the capital to attend the "Converge on Canberra" rallies.
Mr Bazzi said he began filming the interaction on his phone after the man allegedly called him "terrorist" and "Hamas".
An ACT Policing spokesman confirmed they received a report in August 2025 relating to an "alleged verbal altercation" in the central business district in July 2025, and that the matter was under investigation.
Mr Bazzi's complaint followed a separate instance in April 2025 when a Canberra woman wearing a hijab and carrying Lebanese and Palestinian flags was attacked after a rally in support of refugees.
ACT police later concluded the assault on the woman activist was not racially motivated.
Mr Bazzi's video caption on Instagram said he had reported the matter to multiple police agencies but was gutted by the lack of progress in the matter almost a year later.
Footage of the incident captured outside Guzman y Gomez shows a man, dressed in all black clothing, walking towards Mr Bazzi and accusing him of vandalising the Australian War Memorial.
"Why did you put the graffiti on the war memorial? Why did you start it? ... and now you're getting what you deserve," the man is heard saying. "Keep filming ... I'll punch you in the head."
The man's vandalism accusation follows multiple reports in 2024 showing protest slogans spray-painted on war memorials along Anzac Parade in the ACT.
Mr Bazzi told this masthead he had not visited the war memorial in years and stated: "That clearly wasn't me."
The video then shows Mr Bazzi approaching a security guard on the street for help alleging the man was following and harassing him.
The stranger is then heard saying: "Security won't help you by the time I'm finished with ya ... I'll follow you and rearrange your head f---er."
Canberra Centre was contacted for comment and said its security team acted appropriately and that incidents occurring outside the centre should be referred to police.
Following the incident, Mr Bazzi called ACT Policing and was told to report the matter in person at a police station in Canberra or NSW.
NSW police confirmed Mr Bazzi provided a statement and the video clip to officers at Newtown police station in Sydney in August 2025, and that it had been passed on to ACT police.
Internal ACT Policing documents released to Mr Bazzi under freedom-of-information laws cited delays - including a 28-day delay before the matter was referred to investigators - may have hampered their ability to access security footage of the incident before it was wiped.
Following questions from this masthead, ACT police formally followed up with Mr Bazzi on July 14 stating the accused had not been identified and proposed a public media release as a final avenue of inquiry.
People who could identify the man from the incident on July 21, 2025, or had further information have been urged to contact Crime Stoppers ACT quoting reference number 8135888.
