‘Pizzagate’ Gunman Dies After Being Shot by Police During North Carolina Traffic Stop

Edgar Maddison Welch, of Salisbury, N.C., surrenders to police, in Washington, on Dec. 4, 2016. Sathi Soma via AP, File

A man who opened fire inside a Washington restaurant in 2016, after being motivated by the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, was shot by North Carolina police during a traffic stop over the weekend and died two days later.

Edgar Maddison Welch was a passenger in a vehicle that was stopped by officers in Kannapolis on the night of Jan. 4, according to a Jan. 9 statement from the Kannapolis Police Department.

Police said the traffic stop occurred at about 10 p.m. when one of the officers recognized the vehicle Welch was in as “normally driven by an individual who he had previously arrested, and knew had an outstanding warrant for arrest.”

When the officers approached the vehicle to arrest Welch, he pulled out a handgun and pointed it in the direction of one of the officers, according to police.

Welch was instructed by officers to drop the gun but he repeatedly failed to comply with their request and they ultimately shot him, authorities said. He was initially taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, then transferred to a second hospital for additional care but succumbed to his injuries two days later.

The three officers involved in the traffic stop, along with the driver and a backseat passenger were all uninjured during the incident, according to police.

An investigation into the incident, headed by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, remains ongoing and the officers who fired their duty weapon remain on administrative leave, which the police department said is standard protocol.

The outstanding warrant for arrest on Welch was for a felony probation violation, police said.

City of Kannapolis communications director Annette Privette Keller confirmed that the man who died during the weekend traffic stop was the same man involved in the “Pizzagate” incident.

‘Pizzagate’ Theory

Welch made headlines nearly a decade ago when he drove with an assault rifle from North Carolina to Comet Ping Pong restaurant in the nation’s capital, spurred on by a conspiracy theory that had spread online, and fired shots at a locked closet inside.

The restaurant was occupied by employees and customers, including children, at the time but no one was injured during the shooting.

After realizing no children were being held captive in the pizzeria, Welch peacefully surrendered to police.

He pleaded guilty to interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition and assault with a dangerous weapon in 2017. He served four years in prison before being released in March 2020.

Welch later told police he had opened fire in the establishment because he believed a conspiracy theory that Comet Ping Pong and nearby restaurants engaged in child sex trafficking and other crimes involving high-level government officials.

Welch told police at the time that he came to the restaurant to investigate the theory.

The theory, dubbed “Pizzagate,” began circulating online during the 2016 presidential election, prompted by the release of thousands of emails stolen from Hillary Clinton’s then-campaign chairman John Podesta.

The sign for Comet Ping Pong pizzeria is seen on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, on December 5, 2016. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Podesta’s emails contained communications with James Alefantis, the owner of Comet Ping Pong, discussing a fundraiser for Clinton.

The emails also contained references to food items, among them a reference to a handkerchief described as having a “map that seems pizza-related.”

Online sleuths suspected that the food references could be code language for child abuse.

At the time of the shooting, Alefantis, named one of the 50 most powerful people in Washington by GQ in 2012, said the conspiracy theory and subsequent violence left him and his staff traumatized.

A fire occurred at the Comet Ping Pong restaurant in 2019.

Ivan Pentchoukov and The Associated Press contributed to this report.