A man who fired a gun inside a restaurant in the nation’s capital after a false online conspiracy theory called “Pizzagate” motivated him to do so nearly a decade ago, was shot and killed by North Carolina police during a weekend traffic stop.
Edgar Maddison Welch was a passenger in a vehicle stopped by officers in Kannapolis Saturday night, according to a news release from the Kannapolis Police Department. One of the officers recognized the truck as one he had seen Welch drive before, police said. The officer had arrested Welch before and knew he had an outstanding warrant for felony probation violation at the time, according to authorities.
When officers approached the vehicle to arrest Welch, police said the man pulled out a gun and pointed it at one of the officers. After he was ordered to drop the gun but did not do so, two officers shot him, authorities said.
Emergency responders took Welch to the hospital and he died from his injuries two days later, according to the release. None of the officers, the driver or another passenger were injured.
In 2016, authorities said, Welch drove from North Carolina with an assault rifle to the Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington after believing in a baseless conspiracy theory that prominent Democrats were operating a child sex trafficking ring from the pizzeria. The false theory, dubbed “Pizzagate,” began circulating online during the 2016 presidential election.
He entered the restaurant armed and, as customers fled the scene, Welch shot at a locked cabinet inside. After realizing there were no captive children in the pizzeria, Welch surrendered peacefully. No one was injured.
At the time, Comet Ping Pong owner James Alefantis said the conspiracy theory and subsequent violence traumatized him and his staff.
Welch subsequently pleaded guilty to interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition and assault with a dangerous weapon in 2017. His judge, now Supreme Court Justice Kentaji Brown Jackson, subsequently sentenced him to four years in prison.
Kannapolis City Communications Director Annette Privette Keller confirmed that the man who died was the same man involved in the “Pizzagate” incident.
The shooting death of Welch, a Salisbury resident, is being reviewed by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and the officers who shot him are on administrative leave, per department protocol.
