'Pizzagate' gunman killed by police during traffic stop in North Carolina
The "pizzagate" gunman who fired his rifle in a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant in 2016, acting on a debunked conspiracy theory, has died after police shot him in a traffic stop.
Edgar Maddison Welch was shot by police over the weekend and died from his injuries Monday, authorities in North Carolina said Thursday.
Almost 10 years ago, Welch made national headlines when he traveled to the nation's capital from North Carolina and fired shots in the Comet Ping Pong restaurant, spurred by a conspiracy theory that had spread online.
Prosecutors said at the time that Welch was trying to investigate an internet conspiracy theory about the pizza restaurant's being home to a child sex-trafficking ring connected to prominent Democratic politicians, a false claim that became known as "pizzagate."
Welch, who was 28 when the incident occurred, ended up surrendering to police after he did not find evidence to support the conspiracy theory, according to court documents at the time.
Welch was sentenced in 2017 to four years in prison after he pleaded guilty to weapons charges. He had carried an AR-15 rifle and a revolver into the restaurant, according to investigators. No one was injured by the gunfire.
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson sentenced Welch when she was a federal judge, saying at the time that his actions "literally left psychological wreckage," according to The Associated Press.
Police Chief Terry L. Spry of Kannapolis, North Carolina, near Charlotte, said in a news release Thursday that police shot Welch on Saturday during a traffic stop and that a police officer "recognized the front seat passenger as the person with the outstanding warrant for arrest."
Welch had an outstanding arrest warrant for violating probation, according to the police department.
When an officer opened the passenger door to arrest Welch, Spry said, Welch "pulled a handgun from his jacket and pointed it in the direction of the officer" and did not put the gun down when officers ordered him to.
"After the passenger failed to comply with their repeated requests, both officers fired their duty weapon at the passenger, striking him," Spry said.
'Pizzagate' Gunman Dies in Officer-Involved Shooting During North Carolina Traffic Stop
Edgar Maddison Welch, the North Carolina man known for becoming the face of the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, was killed by two Kannapolis, N.C., police officers after he pulled a gun on them at a traffic stop on Jan. 4, officials said on Thursday, Jan. 9.
Around 10:00 p.m., a Kannapolis police officer spotted a gray 2001 GMC Yukon, which he knew was associated with a previously arrested individual, according to a press release from Kannapolis Chief of Police Terry L. Spry. Once the officer stopped the car, they recognized the front seat passenger as Welch, a person with an outstanding warrant for a felony probation violation.
As the officer and driver spoke, “two additional Kannapolis officers arrived at the traffic stop to assist,” per the press release. “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.”
As the officer opened the door, Welch pulled a handgun from his jacket and pointed it toward the officer. “That officer and a second officer who was standing at the rear passenger side of the Yukon gave commands for the passenger to drop the gun. After the passenger failed to comply with their repeated requests, both officers fired their duty weapon at the passenger, striking him,” police said.
Authorities called for medical assistance, and Welch was transported to Atrium–Cabarrus for treatment. He was later transferred to Atrium–Charlotte for additional care, where he succumbed to his injuries on Monday, Jan. 6.
The three officers, the Yukon driver and backseat passenger were not injured.
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is investigating the incident. The officers were put on administrative leave, per standard protocol.
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Welch was associated with the conspiracy theory that suggested children were being trafficked out of Comet Ping Pong. He watched YouTube videos that theorized Hillary Clinton was involved in a satanic pedophile ring.
In December 2016, Welch drove from his hometown of Salisbury, N.C., to the pizza parlor and entered openly carrying an AR-15-style rifle and a revolver, which led terrified customers and employees to flee the eatery.
Once inside, he found a locked room and attempted to force the door open. He then fired his rifle multiple times into the door, per The Washington Post. Welch remained in the eatery for 20 minutes and then dropped his gun and left unarmed. No one was hurt.
Welch later told The New York Times he did "regret how I handled the situation" but did not completely dismiss the theories.
Welch pleaded guilty to a federal charge of interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition and a D.C. charge of assault with a dangerous weapon. He received a sentence of four years in prison; he was released in May 2020. His posttrial supervision was set to end in 2023.
‘Pizzagate’ gunman Edgar Welch shot and killed after flashing firearm during traffic stop in NC
The “pizzagate” gunman who opened fire in a Washington, DC pizzeria eight years ago because he falsely believed it was the center of a Hillary Clinton-involved child sex ring was fatally shot by North Carolina cops during a traffic stop Saturday, according to authorities.
Kannapolis police officers shot Edgar Welch, of the city of Salisbury, after he pulled a gun on authorities while sitting in the front passenger’s side of a 2001 GMC Yukon, according to the police department.
Welch gained notoriety in December 2016 when he pulled the trigger of an AR-15 inside DC’s Comet Ping Pong, claiming he was “standing up against a corrupt system that kidnaps, tortures and rapes babies and children in our own backyard,” court papers said at the time.
The disturbed gunman, who drove from North Carolina, believed a conspiracy that wildly claimed Clinton and her presidential campaign chair, John Podesta, were behind the non-existent child sex ring from the eatery’s basement.
He shot a storage door and fortunately did not injure anyone inside. He surrendered when he realized no children were held captive.
Welch pleaded guilty to federal charges and was sentenced to four years in prison in 2017 by now-Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was then a district judge.
But he again found himself in legal trouble – that cost him his life this time – when cops pulled over the car he was in this weekend and recognized him as a suspect who had an outstanding warrant on a felony probation violation, according to law enforcement.
When one of the cops opened the door to arrest Welch, the convict pulled a gun from his jacket and pointed it toward the officer, Kannapolis police said.
After he refused to drop the weapon, two officers shot him and he was rushed to a local hospital. He died of his wounds on Monday.
The trio of officers on the scene and the driver were uninjured.
“The investigation of this incident remains on-going by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the officers who fired their duty weapon remain on administrative leave as is standard protocol,” the department said in a statement.
With Post wires
'Pizzagate' gunman killed by police during traffic stop in North Carolina
The "pizzagate" gunman who fired his rifle in a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant in 2016, acting on a debunked conspiracy theory, has died after police shot him in a traffic stop.
Edgar Maddison Welch was shot by police over the weekend and died from his injuries Monday, authorities in North Carolina said Thursday.
Almost 10 years ago, Welch made national headlines when he traveled to the nation's capital from North Carolina and fired shots in the Comet Ping Pong restaurant, spurred by a conspiracy theory that had spread online.
Prosecutors said at the time that Welch was trying to investigate an internet conspiracy theory about the pizza restaurant's being home to a child sex-trafficking ring connected to prominent Democratic politicians, a false claim that became known as "pizzagate."
Welch, who was 28 when the incident occurred, ended up surrendering to police after he did not find evidence to support the conspiracy theory, according to court documents at the time.
Welch was sentenced in 2017 to four years in prison after he pleaded guilty to weapons charges. He had carried an AR-15 rifle and a revolver into the restaurant, according to investigators. No one was injured by the gunfire.
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson sentenced Welch when she was a federal judge, saying at the time that his actions "literally left psychological wreckage," according to The Associated Press.
Police Chief Terry L. Spry of Kannapolis, North Carolina, near Charlotte, said in a news release Thursday that police shot Welch on Saturday during a traffic stop and that a police officer "recognized the front seat passenger as the person with the outstanding warrant for arrest."
Welch had an outstanding arrest warrant for violating probation, according to the police department.
When an officer opened the passenger door to arrest Welch, Spry said, Welch "pulled a handgun from his jacket and pointed it in the direction of the officer" and did not put the gun down when officers ordered him to.
"After the passenger failed to comply with their repeated requests, both officers fired their duty weapon at the passenger, striking him," Spry said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Gunman in "pizzagate" hoax fatally shot by North Carolina police during traffic stop
A man who fired an assault rifle inside a Washington, D.C., restaurant in December 2016 while claiming to investigate the "pizzagate" hoax died this week after being fatally shot by police during a traffic stop in Kannapolis, North Carolina.
On the night of Jan. 4, Edgar Welch was a passenger in a 2001 GMC Yukon that was stopped by officers, Kannapolis police said Thursday in a news statement.
The traffic stop was conducted after officers linked the vehicle to Welch, who was wanted at the time on an outstanding arrest warrant, police said.
When officers recognized Welch and moved to arrest him, he produced a handgun from his jacket and pointed it at one of the officers, police said, and after refusing commands to drop the gun, two officers opened fire on him.
He died of his wounds at an area hospital two days later, on Jan. 6, police said.
The three officers involved in the traffic stop and the two other occupants in Welch's vehicle were uninjured, police said.
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation confirmed to CBS News Thursday Welch's identity as the "pizzagate" shooter.
Welch fired his weapon inside the Comet Ping Pong restaurant on Dec. 4, 2016, after he drove there from North Carolina to investigate a false far-right conspiracy theory claiming that Democrats were running a child sex ring out of the restaurant, a claim that had garnered numerous threats against the eatery.
After he entered the crowded restaurant with an AR-15 assault rifle and a revolver, he fired the rifle into a door, authorities said at the time. No one was hurt.
He later pled guilty to one federal count each of interstate transportation of a firearm and assault with a dangerous weapon. In June 2017 he was sentenced by Supreme Court Justice Ketanji B. Jackson, then a U.S. district judge, to four years in prison.
‘Pizzagate’ gunman killed by police in North Carolina after traffic stop, authorities say
A man who fired a gun inside a restaurant in the nation’s capital after a fake online conspiracy theory called “Pizzagate” motivated him to do so nearly a decade ago was shot and killed by North Carolina police during a weekend traffic stop.
Edgar Maddison Welch was a passenger in a vehicle stopped by officers in Kannapolis on Saturday night, according to a Kannapolis Police Department news release. One of the officers recognized the car as the vehicle of someone he had arrested and who had an outstanding warrant for a felony probation violation – Welch, police said.
When the officers approached the vehicle to arrest Welch, police said the man pulled out a handgun and pointed it at one of the officers. After he was instructed to drop the weapon but didn’t, two officers shot Welch, authorities said.
Emergency responders took Welch to the hospital, and he died from his injuries two days later, according to the release. None of the officers, nor the driver or another passenger, were injured.
In 2016, authorities said, Welch drove from North Carolina to Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington with an assault rifle after believing an unfounded conspiracy theory that prominent Democrats were operating a child sex trafficking ring out of the pizzeria. The fake theory, dubbed “Pizzagate,” began circulating online during the 2016 presidential election.
He entered the restaurant armed, and as customers fled the scene, Welch shot at a locked closet inside. After realizing there were no children held captive in the pizzeria, Welch peacefully surrendered. No one was injured.
At the time, Comet Ping Pong’s owner, James Alefantis, said the conspiracy theory and subsequent violence from it traumatized him and his staff.
Welch later pled guilty to interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition and assault with a dangerous weapon in 2017. His judge, now Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, subsequently sentenced him to four years in prison.
City of Kannapolis communications director Annette Privette Keller confirmed the man who died was the same one involved in the “Pizzagate” incident.
The shooting death of Welch, a resident of Salisbury, is under review by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and the officers who fired at him are on administrative leave, per the department’s protocol.
'Pizzagate' gunman sentenced to four years
A US man who opened fired in a Washington DC pizza restaurant because of an online conspiracy theory has been sentenced to four years in prison.
Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, burst into Comet Ping Pong on 4 December 2016 armed with a rifle and pistol.
He drove from North Carolina to pursue bogus claims that the restaurant was the nexus of a child sex ring linked to Hillary Clinton's inner circle.
No one was injured in what prosecutors described as an "armed invasion".
Welch fired an assault rifle into a locked cabinet, believing that abused children were being kept there.
Online conspiracy theorists had circulated a rumour that hacked emails from former Democratic presidential candidate's campaign manager contained clues to a paedophile ring.
James Alefantis, who owns the restaurant, testified in court that Welch's "physical terror" had "left lasting damage on the people I love".
He added that he hopes that "one day in a more truthful time we will remember this day as an aberration" when "lies were seen as real and our social fabric had frayed", the Washington Post reported.
Welch, who has two young daughters, pleaded guilty in March to assault and firearms charges.
In a letter to US District Judge Ketanji Jackson, Welch apologised for "endangering the safety" of the pizzeria customers, adding "it was never my intention to harm or frighten innocent lives, but I realise now just how foolish and reckless my decision was".
Prosecutors had argued that a lengthy sentence was required to "deter other people from pursuing vigilante justice based only on their YouTube feed".
"Beyond Pizzagate, the internet is full of wild conspiracy theories where people urge members of the public... to take action," wrote the assistant US attorneys Demian Ahn and Sonali Patel.
Comet Ping Pong was forced to hire security and also unplugged their phone due to abusive callers, the court heard.
One tourist testified that her six-year-old child, who had been dining during the attack, now suffers from anxiety whenever visiting restaurants.
‘Pizzagate’ shooter sentenced to 4 years in prison
The North Carolina man who fired an assault rifle inside a Washington, DC, pizzeria while investigating an online conspiracy theory known as “Pizzagate” was sentenced to 48 months in prison Thursday.
Edgar Maddison Welch, 29, also received 36 months of probation and was ordered to pay $5,744.33 in restitution for firing three shots with an AR-15 rifle inside the Comet Ping Pong restaurant in northwest Washington in December. He claimed he was attempting to find and rescue child sex slaves that he believed were being held at the restaurant – a belief allegedly based on his reading of a false story circulating onlinethat connected Hillary Clinton’s campaign adviser to the pizzeria through coded messages in his leaked emails.
After Welch found no evidence of child sex-trafficking at the restaurant, he did not harm anyone and surrendered.
He pleaded guilty to gun charges in federal court in March.
Despite Welch’s minimal criminal history, the sentence far exceeded the defense’s case for a shorter, 18-month term, as well as the average 37-month sentence for a defendant of “similar charges,” according to Judge Ketanji B. Jackson.
“The extent of recklessness in this case is breathtaking. It is sheer luck that no one, including (Welch), was killed,” Jackson said, adding, “I’ve never seen anything like the conduct we see here today.”
Jackson said she believed Welch had good intentions, but deemed his actions “an assault on the rule of law” that could potentially inspire future “ill-conceived plots” by vigilantes.
Welch’s family was present at the sentencing. His former girlfriend, who said she attempted to talk Welch out of his actions when he revealed them to her, teared up when the prosecution played a short clip of a two-minute video Welch had recorded in the car on his way to Comet to say goodbye to his two young daughters.
Three witnesses offered statements Thursday, including James Alefantis, founder and owner of Comet Ping Pong, whom Jackson cited in her closing remarks for his discussion of psychological trauma.
“I do hope that one day, in a more thoughtful world, everyone of us will remember this day as an aberration … when the world went mad, and fake news was real,” Alefantis said.
Two Comet employees said they were traumatized by the incident.
But several of witnesses forgave Welch. In her opening remarks, assistant federal defender Dani Jahn thanked the victims for their “humanity.” She choked up and paused to collect herself before proceeding.
Many victims blamed fake news websites that had promoted the conspiracy.
“I hope you realize that you have been a pawn of the misguided media,” a witness said.
Several witnesses also requested that Welch receive a mental health evaluation, which Jackson later affirmed. This became a point of tension when Jahn challenged the mental health evaluation stipulation, noting that the record showed no evidence of Welch’s mental illness. After a sharp back-and-forth with Jackson, Jahn agreed to the terms.
At one point, Welch spoke for a few moments to offer an apology.
“I’m sorry for everything I’ve caused,” Welch said.
CNN’s Laura Jarrett and Noa Yadidi contributed to this report.
‘Pizzagate’ gunman in DC sentenced to 4 years in prison
WASHINGTON (AP) — An online conspiracy theory dubbed “pizzagate” ended Thursday with real-world consequences when a North Carolina man was sentenced to prison for arming himself with an assault rifle, traveling to the nation’s capital and firing his weapon inside a neighborhood pizza restaurant.
Edgar Maddison Welch’s “ill-conceived plot” last year did “actual damage to the lives of real people,” a judge said before sentencing him to four years in prison.
Judge Ketanji B. Jackson said she’d never seen a case like Welch’s, and she gave him a punishment on the upper end of guidelines, in part to send a message to others. If Welch believed an internet conspiracy theory that children were being harmed at the restaurant, he should have notified law enforcement, not attempted to take the law into his own hands, the judge said during Thursday’s hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington.
Jackson said it was “sheer luck” that no one was physically injured when Welch entered Washington’s Comet Ping Pong restaurant on Dec. 4 armed with an AR-15 assault rifle and a revolver. He was there just about a month after the election of President Donald Trump to investigate unfounded internet rumors about prominent Democrats harboring child sex slaves at the restaurant.
As diners and staff fled, leaving half-eaten pizza and cups of soda, Welch went through the restaurant. At one point, he fired his AR-15 at a locked closet, but he discovered there were no children being held in the restaurant and surrendered peacefully.
Welch’s sentence was just below the 4 ½ years prosecutors sought and above the 1 ½ years Welch’s attorney asked for.
During the hearing, the 29-year-old Welch spoke briefly to apologize, saying he realized that his words “cannot undo or change what already happened.” In a letter filed with the court, he wrote that he is “truly sorry for endangering the safety of any and all bystanders who were present that day,” but he didn’t talk about the conspiracy theory that motivated him to act, saying just that he came to Washington “with the intent of helping people I believed were in dire need of assistance.”
On Thursday, he sat quietly in an orange jail jumpsuit throughout most of the hearing as his mother, father, sister and fiancée sat in the front of the courtroom.
Welch’s attorney, Dani Jahn, said that Welch’s actions were “reckless” and “misguided,” but she said Welch, a father and former emergency medical technician, had acted with the intent of defending children.
Welch, who is from Salisbury, North Carolina, pleaded guilty in March to interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition and assault with a dangerous weapon. Though the rumors he went to investigate were unfounded, they have upended the lives of those who worked in the restaurant.
The restaurant’s owner, James Alefantis, said in court that the “viscous web of lies” about his business has been traumatic for him and his staff. He still needs security there, he said, and has suffered both emotionally and financially. In letters to the judge and in court, employees described the terror of Welch’s actions, with some saying they have depression and nightmares and need trauma counseling.
But Alefantis also said he is hopeful.
“I am hopeful that those who provoke fear, traffic in lies and perpetuate conspiracy will awake to the tangible harms that result from their actions,” he said in court. “I am hopeful that one day reason will prevail before a shot rings out again in a place of warmth and love and communal gathering.”
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"Pizzagate" gunman sentenced to 4 years in prison
WASHINGTON - A North Carolina man who fired an assault rifle inside a District of Columbia restaurant during his investigation of a conspiracy theory dubbed "pizzagate" was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Kentanji B. Jackson said that while no one was injured when Edgar Maddison Welch fired his weapon inside the Comet Ping Pong restaurant on Dec. 4, his actions "literally left psychological wreckage."
Welch acknowledged as part of a guilty plea in March that he entered the restaurant with an AR-15 and a revolver. He said he drove to the restaurant from North Carolina to investigate unfounded internet rumors about Democrats harboring child sex slaves there.
The judge said Welch "forged ahead" with an "ill-conceived plot" even though others urged him to abandon it. If Welch believed children were being harmed, he should have notified law enforcement, the judge said.
Welch's attorney had asked for a sentence of 1½ years in prison. Prosecutors wanted 4½ years.
Welch spoke briefly to apologize, saying he realized that his words "cannot undo or change what already happened."
His mother, father, sister and fiancée were in the courtroom.
Two Comet Ping Pong workers and owner James Alefantis spoke before sentencing. Alefantis called "pizzagate" a "viscous web of lies" and said many people had suffered because of Welch's actions.
Man pleads guilty in "pizzagate" shooting in D.C.
WASHINGTON - A man who police said was inspired by false internet rumors dubbed “pizzagate” to “self-investigate” a Washington, D.C. pizzeria armed with an assault rifle, pleaded guilty Friday to two charges related to firing his weapon inside the restaurant.
Edgar Maddison Welch of Salisbury, North Carolina, said during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington that he had agreed to plead guilty to interstate transportation of a firearm and assault with a dangerous weapon. As part of the guilty plea, prosecutors will drop a third charge, possessing a firearm during a crime of violence, which had carried a mandatory minimum prison term of five years.
Authorities say the 28-year-old Welch fired multiple shots from an AR-15 assault rifle inside the Comet Ping Pong restaurant Dec. 4, after driving from North Carolina to investigate a conspiracy theory about Democrats harboring child sex slaves there. No one was injured.
In a December interview with The New York Times, Welch admitted that “the intel on this” — gleaned from talk radio and fringe websites — “wasn’t 100 percent.” Speaking by videoconference from jail, he said, “I just wanted to do some good and went about it the wrong way.”
Lawyers said in court that under sentencing guidelines Welch likely faces 1 ½ to two years in prison as a result of the interstate transportation charge and 1 ½ to five years for the assault charge. Sentences on the charges could run either consecutively or concurrently. Prosecutors and Welch’s defense attorney did not say Friday what sentences they intend to ask for. Welch has also agreed to pay approximately $5,700 for damage he caused in the restaurant. Welch fired shots at a locked door after he entered and patrons fled.
Sentencing is set for June 22.
Pizzagate Gunman Admits He Found Nothing — but Won't Dismiss Conspiracy That Inspired Him
The man who allegedly opened fire in a Washington, D.C., pizzeria over the weekend is reportedly admitting he was inspired to visit the restaurant with a military-style assault rifle after reading debunked conspiracy theories about a child pornography ring hosted in its basement.
As Edgar M. Welch told the New York Times on Wednesday from jail, “I regret how I handled the situation.”
But he wouldn’t dismiss the theories that motivated him.
Welch, who was arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon on Sunday, told the Times he drove 350 miles from his home in Salisbury, North Carolina, to take a “closer look” at Comet Ping Pong in D.C. The pizza shop is at the center of fake conspiracy theories online that purport to link its owner, James Alefantis, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her top campaign staff members.
Police say the conspiracy theories, which are connected under the term “Pizzagate,” have no evidence and are false.
The theories began circulating online after emails from Alefantis were hacked from the account of Clinton’s former campaign chairman, John Podesta, and released by WikiLeaks, according to the Washington Post. The crux of the fake stories is, according to the Post, that restaurants in the retail strip occupied by Comet Ping Pong allegedly hide an underground child sex ring in which Clinton and Podesta are involved.
Welch, 28, told the Times that he initially heard the conspiracy through word of mouth, before installing Internet at his home and becoming “really able to look into it.”
After reading numerous posts, Welch felt his “heart breaking over the thought of innocent people suffering,” he told the Times.
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According to a statement released by authorities on Sunday, police responded to a report of a man with a gun at the northwest Washington pizza shop just before 3 p.m. Welch allegedly entered Comet Ping Pong and pointed an assault rifle at an employee. The victim was able to get away unharmed and contacted police.
Welch admitted to the Times that he didn’t discover children at Comet Ping Pong, saying, “The intel on this wasn’t 100 percent.”
The Times noted, however, that Welch would not outright disavow the Pizzagate conspiracy.
He further slammed the term “fake news,” telling the outlet that he doesn’t trust the mainstream media. He asserted his actions weren’t political, and said that he didn’t vote for either President-elect Donald Trump or Clinton.
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Welch conceded to the paper, “I just wanted to do some good and went about it the wrong way.”
His attorney, Ieshaah Murphy with the D.C. Public Defenders Service, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
It was not immediately clear if Welch has entered a plea to his charge, and he could not be reached by PEOPLE.
Pizzagate: Gunman fires in restaurant at centre of conspiracy
A man has been arrested after firing a rifle inside a pizza restaurant in Washington DC that was the target of a bizarre fake US election story.
No-one was injured in the incident at Comet Ping Pong in an affluent neighbourhood of the nation's capital.
A 28-year-old man from North Carolina was taken into police custody.
Conspiracy theorists said the pizzeria was the base of a child sex ring run by ex-US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her aide, John Podesta.
Edgar Maddison Welch, the man arrested on Sunday, told police he went to the restaurant to "self-investigate" the theory, dubbed "pizzagate".
Explained: Pizzagate and the spread of fake news
The suspect allegedly walked into the restaurant and pointed the rifle at an employee, who managed to flee. He later fired the weapon.
He has been charged with assault with a dangerous weapon.
The "pizzagate" theory originated on alternative message board 4chan, based on emails hacked from the Democratic Party and leaked by Wikileaks.
The restaurant's owner, James Alefantis, a Democratic Party donor, appears in the emails in relation to organising a Democratic fundraiser.
Users of 4chan and another message board Reddit had claimed that words in the emails, such as cheese, hot dog, and pizza, were code for young children and sex acts.
Mr Alefantis said after Sunday's incident: "Let me state unequivocally: These stories are completely and entirely false, and there is no basis in fact to any of them.
"What happened today demonstrates that promoting false and reckless conspiracy theories comes with consequences."
The bizarre and unfounded theory has been spread online by right-wing blogs such as Infowars, which is run by Donald Trump supporter Alex Jones.
Mr Jones, a conspiracy theorist and talk radio host, said Mr Trump called him the day after the election to thank him and his followers.
The theory was also pushed online by Michael Flynn Jr, son of General Michael Flynn, Mr Trump's choice for national security adviser.
Mr Alefantis, the owner of Comet Pizza, has received hundreds of threatening messages on Instagram and Facebook.
There have also been protests outside the eatery.
The conspiracy theory was one of a number of fake news stories related to the US election that have spread both before and after the poll.
