A North Carolina man who sent customers and employees scrambling when he fired a shot inside a northwest Washington pizzeria told police he went there to investigate an online conspiracy theory involving the restaurant and high-ranking Democrats.
Police received a report of a man armed with a rifle at Comet Ping Pong about 3 p.m. Sunday.
~~~ After his arrest, Welch told police he was there to investigate a fake news conspiracy theory called “pizza gate” involving the pizzeria in the 5000 block of Connecticut Avenue NW. Posts to Facebook and Reddit claim Comet was the home base of a child sex abuse ring run by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her presidential campaign chair, John Podesta.
Twitter accounts drew connections between Podesta’s emails, which were hacked and then published by WikiLeaks, and the pizzeria. Users of the online message board 4Chan saw that Podesta had emailed Comet Ping Pong about hosting a Clinton fundraiser, then speculated Comet Ping Pong was part of a Democratic child trafficking ring, according to the New York Times.