KANNAPOLIS, N.C. (AP) ā A man who fired a gun inside a restaurant in the nationās capital after a fake online conspiracy theory called āPizzagateā 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 on Saturday night, according to a Kannapolis Police Department news release. One of the officers recognized the car as the vehicle of someone he had arrested and who had an outstanding warrant for a felony probation violation ā Welch, police said.
When the officers approached the vehicle to arrest Welch, police said the man pulled out a handgun and pointed it at one of the officers. After he was instructed to drop the weapon but didnāt, 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 release. None of the officers, nor the driver and another passenger, were injured.
In 2016, authorities said, WelchĀ drove from North Carolina with an assault rifleĀ to Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington after believing an unfounded conspiracy theory that prominent Democrats were operating a child sex trafficking ring out of the pizzeria. The fake theory, dubbed āPizzagate,ā began circulating online during the 2016 presidential election.
He entered the restaurant armed, and as customers fled the scene, WelchĀ shot at a locked closetĀ inside. After realizing there were no children held captive in the pizzeria, Welch peacefully surrendered. No one was injured.
At the time, Comet Ping Pongās owner, James Alefantis, said the conspiracy theory and subsequent violence from it traumatized him and his staff.
Welch later pled 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, subsequentlyĀ sentenced himĀ to four years in prison.
City of Kannapolis communications director Annette Privette Keller confirmed the man who died was the same one involved in the āPizzagateā incident.
The shooting death of Welch, a resident of Salisbury, is under review by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and the officers who fired at him are on administrative leave, per the departmentās protocol.
Howās that concept of a mental health plan coming along, conservatives.
Indeed. This guy seems like he was in desperate need of it, on the public stage, nearly a decade ago. And here we areā¦
Iām surprised the cops gave him a chance to drop the weapon he pulled out and pointed at them. But he is a white guy. But there have been cases where they shoot unarmed white guys even when they are complying, so I guess you just never know.
