FILE – Edgar Maddison Welch, of Salisbury, N.C., surrenders to police in Washington on Dec. 4, 2016 (Sathi Soma via AP, File).
The individual who arrived at a popular pizzeria in Washington, D.C., carrying an automatic weapon due to believing in a false online conspiracy regarding child sex trafficking has been fatally shot during a traffic stop in North Carolina.
Edgar Maddison Welch, aged 36, was involved in a confrontation with the police in Kannapolis on Jan. 4, as reported by the Kannapolis Police Department. The incident commenced at approximately 10 a.m. on North Cannon Boulevard in Kannapolis, a city located about 30 miles northeast of Charlotte. A police officer on patrol recognized a gray 2001 GMC Yukon that matched the description of a vehicle belonging to an individual he had previously arrested, who also had an outstanding warrant for arrest.
The suspect, Welch, was wanted for a “Felony Probation Violation,” according to the statement. It remains uncertain if this violation is linked to the four-year prison sentence he was serving due to his assault on Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 4, 2016. During that incident, Welch arrived at the Comet Ping Pong restaurant on Connecticut Avenue armed with an AR-15, a revolver, and a shotgun. The pizzeria had become a target of the debunked “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory. Upon entering the restaurant, Welch openly carried the AR-15, prompting employees, customers, and even children to flee in fear.
Although Welch was apparently not behind the wheel at the time of the traffic stop in North Carolina, the officer soon realized that he was in the front passenger seat. While the officer was talking to the driver, Kannapolis police say, two other officers arrived on the scene to assist.
“The officer who initiated the traffic stop approached the passenger side of the vehicle and opened the front passenger’s door to arrest the individual,” the statement says. “When he opened the door, the front seat passenger pulled a handgun from his jacket and pointed it in the direction of the officer.”
The officer and a second officer ordered Welch to drop the gun, but he didn’t follow those instructions.
“After the passenger failed to comply with their repeated requests, both officers fired their duty weapon at the passenger, striking him,” the statement says.
Although Welch initially survived and was taken first to an area hospital and later transferred to Charlotte, he ultimately died on Jan. 6.
“The three officers on the traffic stop, along with the driver and a back seat passenger of the Yukon were all uninjured in this incident,” the police statement noted.
Police say that an investigation by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is ongoing, and the officers who fired at Welch are on administrative leave.
According to the DOJ, Welch’s attempted takedown of Comet was “motivated, at least in part, by unfounded rumors concerning a child sex-trafficking ring that supposedly was being perpetrated at the establishment.”
“At one point, Welch encountered a locked room and attempted to force open the door, first using a butter knife and then discharging his assault rifle multiple times into the door,” the DOJ said. Welch later turned the gun toward an employee who had entered the restaurant carrying pizza dough. No one was injured in the incident, a fact that now-Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was overseeing the case at the time, said was only a matter of “sheer luck.”
Welch pleaded guilty in March 2017 to federal weapons charges and a District of Columbia charge of assault with a dangerous weapon and was sentenced in June of that year to four years in prison.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, he was no longer in custody as of May 28, 2020. The federal docket shows that in July of that year, jurisdiction was transferred to federal court in North Carolina, and the probation recommendation that apparently preceded that transfer was sealed from the docket.
