Ariz. cop's Facebook pic targeting Obama probed

(CBS News) 

Last Updated 11:44 a.m. ET

PEORIA, Ariz. - The Secret Service is investigating a picture that was posted on an Arizona police officer's Facebook page in which an image of President Barack Obama appears to have been used for target practice.

The Peoria Police Department is also investigating Police Sgt. Patrick Shearer and a picture that was uploaded on Jan. 19 showing several young men in the desert holding various weapons (including assault rifles and a revolver) and holding up a T-shirt with President Obama's likeness on it.

The shirt appeared riddled with bullet holes.

The picture was online while the president was visiting Arizona earlier this week, but was removed from the sergeant's page on Thursday after inquiries were made to the Peoria Police.

"We received information about a possible policy violation today involving one of our employees," Peoria Police spokesman Jay Davies told CBS Affiliate KPHO.

Davies said Peoria Police were contacted by the Secret Service.

The Secret Service confirmed to KPHO that it has launched an investigation surrounding the picture.

A Secret Service official confirmed to CBS News that an investigation is underway, saying, "We're aware of the incident and we are taking the appropriate follow-up steps. We recognize that people have the right to free speech, but we also have the right to determine what someone's intent is.

"When we get information that shows someone has an unusual direction of interest in one of our protectees we take the appropriate follow-up steps."

Sources tell CBS News homeland security correspondent Bob Orr that there is no "threat" attached to the picture, or that the students in the photo or the officer who took the photo intended any threat. The picture apparently is months old and was just recent posted.

Shearer has been with the police in Peoria (a suburb of Phoenix) at least 14 years, and will remain on duty while the department determines if he violated its social media policy, which says, "Posting information regarding off-duty activity that may tend to bring an officer's reputation into question is strongly discouraged."

"We seek to maintain a positive image and ensure that we're always holding our employees to that standard," Davies said. Discipline for violating the policy varies depending on the situation, Davies told KPHO correspondent Lindsey Reiser.

The New York Times reports Shearer was decorated in 2007 for helping to save a driver trapped in a burning vehicle.

The Times also reports that the same image was posted on the Facebook page of one of the young men holding a gun in the photo, identified as a student at Centennial High School in Peoria. School officials are now conducting their own investigation.

[68Bree]

Political satire and Freedom of Speech seem to get a black-eye when persons exercise their rights wether speaking with a pen/pencil, with a microphone, or a handgun. I'm curious if they (government) will try and say they assisinated the man on the t-shirt? It was just a picture, right?

Kind of like the guy who allegedly shot at the Whitehouse and they are attempting to charge him for an Assasination attempt against the President? do you want to know the best part...the President wasn't even home. That's right, NOT HOME! Go figure this one out.

[illogicbuster]

LOL! Much ado over of exercise of 1st Amendment rights. If the school or the Police Dept. cause problems, the officer & students need to sue for BIG $.

[newstrace]

It may well turn out that there's no serious threat to the safety of the President or anyone else from this bunch, but yes, the Secret Service has to check it out to make sure no one involved might be unbalanced enough to eventually decide to go on a real shooting spree. Sure it's just a t-shirt, but it's still not very responsible for an established authority figure to take the whole gang out to go shoot-up the president in effigy. Teenagers are impressionable, and some of them are just screwed up enough that they might not make much of a distinction between a violent fantasy & reality. Just look at the two kids who were getting ready to bomb a high school assembly in Utah.

[Solarrays247]

Guess wounding Gabby Giffords wasn't enough for Arizona. Now they are going after our president? That picture is disgusting! I hope all those involved are punished! The rest of us know all too well what this picture is implying. The wording on the one guy's shirt says so much, "Just Do It."

Here ya have it folks...our own home-grown American Taliban terrorists!

[hilario3]

All Republicans are not this inempt and I am sure these dopes
are all repbulicans. How can the police members be part of this
hateful event? It maybe because the envirnoment in Arizona breeds
this type of behavior. Arizona has quickly turned into another
Lousianna,Missippi and Texas with it's bigoted state government.

[Repigssuck]

Maybe Obama should send a nay Seals Team to Arizona to take care of this issue, and for Brewer too!

[longtree-2009]

hope the cop or cops lose their job immediately. it is implying a threat on the life of the POTUS and is inexcusable. these cops are obviously like brewer. arizona is infested with vermin of this type.

[wolfmagic2012]

Little racist Piggies. I bet Brewer thinks they're cute!

[texasjustice801]

Now THAT was stoopid to do. Wadda dumbazz.

[achememnon]

Typical republican racist behavior, I don't know why anyone is surprise by this behavior thats all these people know.