Mar 26, 2018 2 min read

ROSTRAVER – A department inquiry is underway regarding an off-duty Rostraver Township police officer’s decision to strap an AR-15 assault-style rifle across his torso to counterprotest an anti-gun rally Friday in Greensburg.

Police Chief Greg Resetar said the inquiry into Officer Martin Palla involved determining whether he violated civil service rules or his union contract by showing up across the street from the March for Our Lives rally Friday outside the Westmoreland County Courthouse that drew about 200 people.

The police department has been fielding hundreds of telephone calls from people complaining the officer appeared to have been bullying children at the rally after the police department’s number was linked to social media sites with photographs of Palla, who apparently carried an unloaded rifle.

Resetar said the issue is a personnel matter and the department is limited in what it can say about Palla, who has worked for Rostraver for eight years.

He said Palla, like every U.S. citizen, has a constitutional right to peacefully protest.

“This does not imply the department approved the protest,” Resetar said.

“I do not and cannot condone the actions,” he added.

He declined to comment on whether the weapon Palla had strapped across his body was loaded at the time of the rally.

The department and elected township officials are reviewing the circumstances involving Palla at the protest before they react, Resetar said.