Article 2GYVS “Pizzagate” DC shooter pleads guilty, faces years in prison

“Pizzagate” DC shooter pleads guilty, faces years in prison

by
David Kravets
from Ars Technica - All content on (#2GYVS)
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Enlarge / The Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington, DC., where Edgar Maddison Welch stormed to "self-investigate" Pizzagate. (credit: Nicholas Kamm/Getty Images)

A North Carolina man pleaded guilty Friday to weapons-related charges for a December episode in which he stormed a Washington, DC pizzeria and fired rounds from a Colt AR-15 assault-style rifle. The incident was a bid to "self-investigate" an unfounded conspiracy theory concerning the restaurant's basement being the secret headquarters of a nonexistent child sex-trafficking ring whose (again, nonexistent) members included Hillary Clinton and her inner circle.

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(credit: Facebook)

No one was injured, but the episode sent Comet Ping Pong employees and patrons running for their lives when Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, walked in with the assault weapon and a .38-caliber Colt revolver. Later, Welch pointed the AR-15 at a restaurant worker before shooting a computer and a lock on a backroom door.

Welch pleaded guilty to two counts. One charge was the interstate transport of firearms. The other was a local count of assault with a dangerous weapon. Welch remains jailed, and he faces up to a seven-year prison term when sentenced later this year. He faced a substantially longer term had he been convicted at trial.

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