Pizzagate conspiracy: Fake news leads man to open fire in restaurant
A man who said he was investigating a conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton running a child sex ring out of a pizza place fired an assault rifle inside the Washington restaurant.
A man who said he was investigating a conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton running a child sex ring out of a pizza place fired an assault rifle inside the Washington restaurant, the police. No one was injured, they added.
Metropolitan police department spokeswoman Aquita Brown said the police received a call Sunday afternoon about a men with a weapon on Connecticut Avenue, in an affluent neighborhood of the nation’s capital.
Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, of Salisbury North Carolina, walked through the front door of Comet Ping Pong and pointed a firearm in the direction of a restaurant employee, the Washington Post reported.
The employee was able to flee and notify the police. Welch then fired the gun into the floor.
The police arrested Welch without incident. They recovered an assault rifle. Welch was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon.
Two firearms were recovered inside the restaurant and an additional weapon was recovered from the suspect’s vehicle, the police said in a statement Sunday evening.
The Comet Ping Pong gained notoriety during the presidential campaign after fake news stories stated that Hillary Clinton and her campaign chief ran a child sex ring out of the restaurant.
Welch told the police that he had come to the restaurant to “self-investigate” the fictitious online conspiracy theory that spread online during Clinton’s run for the White House.
The Comet, its owner, staff and nearby businesses were caught up in an onslaught of conspiracy theories and fake news during the often contentious presidential campaign and were victims of social media attacks and death threats, the Post reported.
James Alefantis, owner of Comet Ping Pong, released a statement late Sunday night denying what he called the “malicious and utterly false accusations” and said the company hoped to resume normal operations within a few days.
“I hope that those involved in fanning these flames will take a moment to contemplate what happened here today, and stop promoting these falsehoods right away,” Alefantis said in the statement.