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, nonexistant) members included Hillary Clinton and her inner circle.
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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Source: Ars Technica – “Pizzagate” DC shooter pleads guilty, faces years in prison