The man who opened fire in a pizzeria at Washington, D.C., in 2016 as he tried to investigate the so-called “Pizzagate” child-sex trafficking conspiracy theory, Edgar Maddison Welch, has died after being shot by police during a traffic stop in his home state of North Carolina. 

On Saturday night, police officers at Kannapolis, North Carolina, stopped a vehicle after one officer recognized the vehicle as belonging to someone who had an outstanding warrant for a felony probation violation.

The officers approached the vehicle as they attempted to arrest Welch. However, when the officer opened the passenger door, Welch reportedly pointed a handgun at the officer and refused multiple commands to drop the firearm. 

Two officers then fired their service weapons and struck Welch. 

The Kannapolis police department said the vehicle’s driver, a backseat passenger, and the officers involved were unharmed. 

Welch was transported to the Atrium Heath Main hospital at Charlotte and died two days later.

Eight years ago, Welch became the subject of national news after he brought a rifle and a revolver into a pizzeria, Comet Ping Pong, at Washington, D.C., as he attempted to investigate the baseless conspiracy theory that the restaurant was the hub of a Satanic child sex abuse ring that included top Democrats, such as the party’s 2016 presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton. 

During the 2016 election cycle, conspiracy theorists alleged that Mrs. Clinton was involved in the rape and murder of children. Comet Ping Pong was roped into the wild theory after leaked emails showed that her campaign chairman, John Podesta, frequented the establishment. Eventually, a baseless theory emerged that the pizzeria sat above a series of tunnels used to hold the children for the sex abuse ring, and social media users began to accuse the restaurant’s owner, James Alefantis, of being a pedophile.

After reading about the allegations for a few days, Welch decided to investigate the restaurant and drove to Washington from his home state of North Carolina. Employees and customers fled the Comet Ping Pong as he moved furniture and tried to investigate the claim that there was a child sex abuse ring below the restaurant. At one point, he shot through the lock of a closet and damaged a computer. After failing to find evidence of the sex abuse ring, he surrendered to police.

No one was injured in the incident. In March 2017, he pleaded guilty to federal charges of assault with a deadly weapon and transporting a firearm over state lines. A statement that was part of the plea agreement said, “The defendant then took it upon himself to act in what he believed would be a violent confrontation at the restaurant” that would involve “sacraficing [sic] the lives of a few for the lives of many.”

The judge who presided over Welch’s case was Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was a district court judge at the time. She ordered him to three years of supervised release and to undergo a mental health evaluation. She also ordered Welch to stay away from Comet Ping Pong and to pay $5,744 for the property damage he caused. 

Comet Ping Pong remains open.