'Pizzagate' gunman killed by US police after traffic stop
In 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch travelled to a pizzeria in Washington DC with an assault rifle over a US election online conspiracy theory.
Friday 10 January 2025 10:47, UK
The "pizzagate" gunman who fired a rifle inside a restaurant, acting on a fake online conspiracy theory, has died after police shot him following a traffic stop.
Edgar Maddison Welch was a passenger in a vehicle stopped by police in Kannapolis, North Carolina, on Saturday night, the authorities said.
One of the officers recognised the car as belonging to someone they had arrested and who had an outstanding arrest warrant, Kannapolis Police Department said in a statement.
When police approached the vehicle to arrest Welch, he was said to have pulled out a handgun and pointed it at an officer.
He was instructed to drop the weapon but didn't and two officers shot Welch, police said.
He was taken to hospital and died from his injuries two days later.
None of the officers, nor the car's driver or other passenger were injured.
'Pizzagate'
In 2016, Welch made international headlines after he fired a shot inside the Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington DC.
Believing an unfounded conspiracy theory that prominent Democrats were operating a child sex trafficking ring out of the pizzeria, Welch drove from North Carolina with an assault rifle to the restaurant.
The fake theory was dubbed "pizzagate" and had surfaced online during the 2016 presidential election.
Welch, 28 at the time, had entered the restaurant armed, as customers fled the scene, and shot at a locked closet.
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He ended up surrendering to police after failing to find any evidence to support the conspiracy theory, with no one suffering any injuries.
At the time, the restaurant's owner James Alefantis said the conspiracy theory and subsequent violence traumatised him and his staff.
Welch later pleaded guilty to interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition and assault with a dangerous weapon and was sentenced to four years in prison.
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City of Kannapolis communications director Annette Privette Keller confirmed the man who died was the same one involved in the "pizzagate" incident.