A North Carolina man who fired an assault rifle at a Washington, D.C., pizza shop in 2016 based on an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory died Monday from gunshot wounds after a local traffic stop.
Edgar Madison Welch was shot by police during a traffic stop last weekend and died two days later from his wounds, the Kannapolis Police Department said in a press release Thursday.
In 2016, Welch traveled from North Carolina to Washington, D.C., and opened fire inside the Comet Ping Pong restaurant. He claimed at the time that he was investigating an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman, John Podesta, were running a child sex ring from a restaurant.
Welch was sentenced to four years in prison. This theory became known as Pizzagate and was popularized among far-right conspiracy theory websites and social media accounts.
Police in Kannapolis, near Charlotte, announced Thursday that they had taken over a gray 2001 GMC Yukon associated with Welch because of an outstanding warrant for a parole violation. During a traffic stop Saturday, Welch pointed a gun at officers, police said.
Police shot Welch after he “did not respond to repeated requests” to put down his gun, the statement said.
The shooting is under investigation by the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation, and the officer involved has been placed on administrative leave in accordance with the agency's protocol.
