A man who fired a gun inside a restaurant in Washington, DC, nearly a decade ago was the result of a false online conspiracy theory targeting Democrats and Hillary Clinton named “Pizzagate,” the recent shooting and killing by North Carolina police.
Edgar Welch was a passenger in a vehicle stopped by officers in Kannapolis, N.C., on Jan. 4, according to a news release from the Kannapolis Police Department. One of the officers recognized the car as the vehicle of someone he arrested and had an outstanding warrant for a felony probation violation – Welch, police said.
City of Kannapolis communications director Annette Privette Keller confirmed the man who died was the same person involved in the 2016 incident at a restaurant in Washington, DC.
At the time, authorities said, Welch drove from North Carolina with an assault rifle to the Comet Ping Pong restaurantbelieving a baseless conspiracy theory that prominent Democrats were operating a child sex trafficking ring out of the pizzeria. The false theory began circulating online at the height of the 2016 presidential election pitting Clinton against Donald Trump.
Welch entered the restaurant armed, and as customers fled the scene, he fired at a locked closet inside. After learning that no children were being held captive in the pizzeria, Welch surrendered peacefully. No one was hurt.
The owner of Comet Ping Pong said the conspiracy theory and subsequent violence upset him and his staff.
Sentenced to 4 years in prison
Welch later pleaded guilty to interstate transportation of firearms and ammunition and assault with a dangerous weapon in 2017. He was sentenced to four years in prison by Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is now the judge in the High Court.
The shooting death of Welch, a Salisbury resident, is under investigation by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and the officers who shot him are on administrative leave, per department protocol.
Police said that when the officers approached the vehicle to arrest Welch, the man pulled out a handgun and pointed it at one of them. After he was asked to drop the weapon but he did not, two officers shot Welch, authorities said.
Emergency responders took Welch to the hospital and he died from his injuries two days later, according to the news release. None of the officers, nor the driver and another passenger, were injured.
