Edgar Maddison Welch surrenders to police after shooting up Comet Ping Pong Panic swept through the restaurant Customers and employees ran for the front door Welch continued to fire his gun Bullets ricocheted off walls a door and a computer Police arrived on the scene They arrested Welch The charge was assault with a dangerous weapon
Nobody was hurt during the incident But many were very frightened What would cause a man to enter a restaurant and open fire Welch said that he was investigating claims that he'd seen online He said he had read stories about presidential candidate Hillary Clinton She was allegedly running a child kidnapping ring out of the restaurant These stories said PAYING THE PRICE After the shooting Welch said he regretted believing the false news stories Welch was originally charged with assault with a dangerous weapon He was later charged with more crimes They included transporting a firearm across state lines On March 24 2017 Welch pleaded guilty to two of the charges He could serve up to seven years in prison children were being sold and abused by adults None of it was true Yet the story had been repeated enough that some people believed it Welch said he visited the restaurant to find out for himself His investigation quickly turned violent He surrendered to
police when he realized no children were being held captive THE RISE OF FAKE NEWS The false story became IN THE REAL WORLD A VICTIM OF FALSE NEWS Before the shooting at Comet Ping Pong its owner received many death threats on social media Some of his employees also received death threats After the shooting he was angry He said What happened today demonstrates that promoting false and reckless conspiracy theories does come with consequences Welch was ordered to pay the owner nearly 6 000 to repair the property he damaged known as Pizzagate It had circulated for months on social media It started when e mails from the Clinton campaign were leaked Some mentioned Comet Ping Pong's owner James Alefantis He supported Clinton in her race against Donald J Trump Some people who disliked Clinton created a story They suggested that the e mails contained code words for child abuse These theories were shared on social media The story grew as it was
Fake news websites that sprung up during the 2016 US presidential race may have influenced some people to not vote for Hillary Clinton shared with more people Some fake news websites picked up the story That spread the lies even further Although the story was completely false Welch felt he had to investigate The Pizzagate story shows how fake news can quickly become dangerous Many people don't know what to believe All kinds of information can be found on the Internet Deciding what is true and what isn't can be difficult
