WaPo: “A North Carolina man who fired shots into a popular D.C. pizza parlor that internet conspiracy theorists convinced him housed a satanic pedophile ring was shot to death last week by two North Carolina police officers. Authorities said he pulled a gun on them during a traffic stop.
Edgar Maddison Welch became the name and face associated with the “Pizzagate” theory — the bizarre suggestion that children were being trafficked out of Comet Ping Pong, a busy, family-oriented pizza shop on Connecticut Avenue in Northwest Washington. On a Sunday afternoon in December 2016, having driven straight from his hometown of Salisbury, North Carolina, police said, Welch walked into the restaurant openly carrying an AR-15-style rifle and a revolver, causing customers and employees to flee in horror.
After a few minutes, Welch encountered a locked room and tried to force open the door, firing his rifle multiple times into the door, federal prosecutors said. After spending more than 20 minutes inside, Welch dropped his guns and exited Comet Ping Pong unarmed. No one was hurt. He would later plead guilty to federal firearms charges and receive a sentence of four years in prison. Federal records show he was released from custody in May 2020.”