A blogger who praised the fatal shootings of three Pittsburgh police officers last year has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for illegally possessing firearms.

The FBI began investigating 32-year-old Hardy Lloyd, of Crafton, after he posted a picture of himself holding a rifle on a website where he also praised the April 2009 police shootings.

Lloyd isn’t allowed to have weapons because he was on probation at the time for illegally possessing a firearm in a 2004 case in which he was also acquitted on charges that he shot a woman. Lloyd had claimed self-defense.

State probation officers found 10 weapons in his home in May 2009, shortly after he posted the picture. He pleaded guilty to illegally possessing weapons in April and was sentenced yesterday.