A controversial photo has been posted on the Facebook page of Garrett Bickmore, a Pittsburgh police officer who is posing with large guns, along with an assistant district attorney from Allegheny County.
The assistant DA, Julie Jones, and the uniformed officer are smiling and toting assault style weapons with the photo caption, “You should take the plea.”
The photo appears to have been posted on Bickmore’s page yesterday evening. According to a bureau roster, he was hired in 2013.
Both of the guns appear to have evidence tags hanging from them. The Allegheny County district attorney’s office confirmed this afternoon that the guns were evidence in a case that the pair had worked on together.
That nonjury trial, in which Ms. Jones was the prosecutor and Officer Bickmore was the affiant, concluded Thursday when the defendant pleaded guilty to gun and drug violations, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Ms. Jones declined to comment on the photo, and Officer Bickmore could not immediately be reached this morning, the article said.
The photo appeared to still be live on Jones’ Facebook wall this morning, when a Post-Gazette reporter saw the image.
A District attorney spokesman said, “The Assistant District Attorney’s conduct is contrary to office protocol with respect to the handling of evidence. Moving forward, her appearance in this photo is now a personnel matter.”
A spokeswoman in charge of communications for the police bureau, confirmed that the gentleman in the photo was indeed an officer in Zone 5, which encompasses eastern neighborhoods of the city.
“We were not aware of this photo,” she said. “We don’t necessarily monitor the activity of all our employees.”
Command staff are reportedly reviewing the image, she added.