Man Convicted in #Pizzagate Shooting Is Killed in Confrontation With Police – #terror

Edgar Maddison Welch, 36, of Salisbury, N.C., who was sentenced to four years in prison for the 2016 shooting at a Washington restaurant, was fatally shot after he pointed a gun at an officer during a traffic stop, the police said. A man in North Carolina who fired a rifle inside a Washington restaurant in 2016 because he wrongly believed an internet conspiracy known as Pizzagate was fatally shot by the police in North Carolina over the weekend when he pulled out a gun during a traffic stop, the authorities said. The man, Edgar Maddison Welch, 36, of Salisbury, N.C., was a passenger in a car on Saturday night when an officer with the Kannapolis Police Department recognized him from a prior arrest and believed there was an outstanding warrant over a felony probation violation, Chief Terry L. Spry of the Kannapolis Police Department said in a statement on Thursday. When the officer confirmed his suspicion and went to arrest him, Mr. Welch pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the officer, the police said. The police officer and a second officer ordered Mr. Welch to put his gun down. When he did not comply, they shot at him, the department said. Mr. Welch died on Monday at a hospital in Charlotte as a result of his injuries. (…) The shooting at Comet Ping Pong, a pizza parlor in Washington came amid a frenzy of false online rumors and accusations during the 2016 presidential campaign that the restaurant was holding children as sex slaves as part of a child-abuse ring led by Hillary Clinton. The conspiracy theory was started after people misinterpreted emails from the account of John Podesta, the chairman of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, that were released by WikiLeaks. On Dec. 4, 2016, Mr. Welch, who went by Maddison, drove six hours from Salisbury to Comet Ping Pong in Northwest Washington to investigate the claims. He brought several guns with him and, shortly after he arrived at the restaurant, fired an assault-like AR-15 rifle inside the restaurant. No one was harmed in the shooting and Mr. Welch surrendered to the police. He later pleaded guilty in federal court to gun charges and received a four-year prison term.

via nytimes: Man Convicted in Pizzagate Shooting Is Killed in Confrontation With Police

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