Edgar Welch, ‘Pizzagate’ gunman, killed by police during traffic stop
Police said man who brandished weapons years ago at the ‘Pizzagate’ restaurant, refused to drop his revolver when pulled over
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A man who became know as the “Pizzagate” gunman died earlier this week after he was fatally shot by North Carolina police who had pulled him over in a traffic stop, authorities reported Thursday.
The dead man, Edgar Maddison Welch, was charged years ago in 2016 after brandishing an assault weapon and revolver at a Washington D.C. pizza shop at the center of the notorious fake “Pizzazgate” conspiracy theory that the restaurant was the headquarters of a child sex-trafficking ring run by Democrats.
Welch had driven from his North Carolina home then to hunt for Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced to four years in prison for assault with a dangerous weapon, and interstate transport of firearms.
Last Saturday night an Kannapolis police officer recognized Welch’s car and pulled it over over because Welch had an outstanding arrest warrant for a felony probation violation, officials reported. When the officer opened the car door to arrest the 36-year-old man, he pulled a gun, said authorities The arresting officer and a second officer shot the Pizzagate gunman when he refused orders to drop the weapon, according to a police statement.
Welch was rushed to a local hospital but died of his injuries two days later. City of Kannapolis communications director Annette Privette Keller confirmed Welch was involved in the “Pizzagate” incident.
None of the three officers on the scene, the vehicle’s driver, or a third passenger in a back seat were injured. The officers who fired on Welch have been placed on administration leave as the shooting is further investigated.
The confrontation marked a bloody end to one of the most notorious anti-Democrat conspiracy theories that kicked off an era of increasingly wild, completely false political fantasies. Pizzagate conspiracists claimed Hillary Clinton and her then-presidential campaign manager in her race against now President-elect Donald Trump were involved in the satanic nest of child sex-traffickers
They cited leaked emails between the two that were actually conversations about an possible upcoming political fundraiser at the restaurant, Comet Ping Pong pizzeria, which the conspiracy theorists insisted were in “code.”
When Welch stormed the restaurant brandishing his weapons, families with children fled for their lives. He searched for members or any evidence of the ring, but found nothing because it didn’t exist. He fired once into the door of a closet at the restaurant, but no one was injured.
He said after his arrest that the information he read in extremist news and social media sites that “the intel on this was not 100 percent.”
“I just wanted to do some good and went about it the wrong way,” Welch later told The New York Times in an interview. “I regret how I handled the situation.”
The restaurant became the targeted of a deluge of death threats and staff and customer harassment as the fake conspiracy circulated.
The restaurant’s owner, James Alefantis, told The New York Times at the time: “From this insane, fabricated conspiracy theory, we’ve come under constant assault. I’ve done nothing for days but try to clean this up and protect my staff and friends from being terrorized.”[9]