End Of The Pizzagate Road
January 9, 2025 2:19 PM Subscribe
Edgar Maddison Welch, who shot up a DC pizzeria because of an online conspiracy theory that it was a front for a child sex slavery ring, was killed by police when he pulled a weapon on them during a traffic stop.
The traffic stop occurred due to outstanding arrest warrants for the driver and Welch. When Welch was apprehended, he pulled a gun on the police, then was shot after refusing to drop the weapon after ordered to do so. He was transported to Atrium Health Cabarrus for immediate care and treatment, then was later taken to Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte where he died on Jan. 6.
Welch is most infamously known for his attack on the Comet Ping-Pong Pizzeria in DC based on the QAnon "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory that the business was a front for a child sex slavery ring. In response to the conspiracy theory, Welch attacked the business wielding an AR-15 and a revolver, firing the rifle several times while patrons (including several children) fled. Welch ultimately surrendered to police, and would be sentenced by then-Federal District Court Judge (and now Associate Justice) Ketanji Brown-Jackson to 4 years of prison and 3 years of probation for assault with and brandishing of a deadly weapon, along with being fined for the damages he caused.
The traffic stop occurred due to outstanding arrest warrants for the driver and Welch. When Welch was apprehended, he pulled a gun on the police, then was shot after refusing to drop the weapon after ordered to do so. He was transported to Atrium Health Cabarrus for immediate care and treatment, then was later taken to Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte where he died on Jan. 6.
Welch is most infamously known for his attack on the Comet Ping-Pong Pizzeria in DC based on the QAnon "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory that the business was a front for a child sex slavery ring. In response to the conspiracy theory, Welch attacked the business wielding an AR-15 and a revolver, firing the rifle several times while patrons (including several children) fled. Welch ultimately surrendered to police, and would be sentenced by then-Federal District Court Judge (and now Associate Justice) Ketanji Brown-Jackson to 4 years of prison and 3 years of probation for assault with and brandishing of a deadly weapon, along with being fined for the damages he caused.
Lol.
posted by snwod at 2:26 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]
posted by snwod at 2:26 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]
I’m going to enjoy watching folks who would normally be entirely skeptical about the police report weigh in. Go to it, folks!
posted by Galvanic at 2:31 PM on January 9 [5 favorites]
posted by Galvanic at 2:31 PM on January 9 [5 favorites]
who could have predicted that a violent mentally unstable person would one day come to a violent end
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:32 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:32 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]
What a sad fate. Everything he was ever known for was stupid shitty stuff.
posted by mumimor at 2:33 PM on January 9 [9 favorites]
posted by mumimor at 2:33 PM on January 9 [9 favorites]
1) fuck this guy
2) any cop who uses is allowed to use any kind of force under the color of law - but particularly deadly force - should have a body cam running, whose unaltered contents are immediately available to a 3rd party with prosecutorial powers independent of the state that police department is run by.
no body cam? full trial and full civil liability, with the same presumption of the need for force as a member of the public.
posted by lalochezia at 2:39 PM on January 9 [39 favorites]
2) any cop who uses is allowed to use any kind of force under the color of law - but particularly deadly force - should have a body cam running, whose unaltered contents are immediately available to a 3rd party with prosecutorial powers independent of the state that police department is run by.
no body cam? full trial and full civil liability, with the same presumption of the need for force as a member of the public.
posted by lalochezia at 2:39 PM on January 9 [39 favorites]
Well, now: this is CERTAIN to put an end to THIS line of conspiracy thinking.
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 2:48 PM on January 9 [12 favorites]
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 2:48 PM on January 9 [12 favorites]
May his memory be a curse.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 2:55 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 2:55 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]
nothing good's going to come from a traffic stop on a 2001 Yukon
posted by torokunai2 at 2:56 PM on January 9 [9 favorites]
posted by torokunai2 at 2:56 PM on January 9 [9 favorites]
I’m going to enjoy watching folks who would normally be entirely skeptical about the police report weigh in.
I'd love to hear where you think the cognitive dissonance comes in. A guy who was convicted of shooting up a public space is an equivalent situation to..... ?
posted by LionIndex at 3:04 PM on January 9 [6 favorites]
I'd love to hear where you think the cognitive dissonance comes in. A guy who was convicted of shooting up a public space is an equivalent situation to..... ?
posted by LionIndex at 3:04 PM on January 9 [6 favorites]
It was the source of a lot of horror stories, but back in the days there was a big building with a huge lawn where mentally ill people were sent against their will and given drugs against their will and prevented from leaving...but at least they weren't creating, or dying in, a hail of bullets.
(this is on the heels of a self-congratulatory story from the local police here, who participated in a "suicide by cop", and were gleefully found not at fault because the guy warned them he was going to point the (bb) gun at them so that they'd shoot him, after like 57 previous times the police had been called on him for disturbing the peace and threatening his neighbors and swinging around real guns in previous suicide-by-cop attempts)
posted by AzraelBrown at 3:08 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]
(this is on the heels of a self-congratulatory story from the local police here, who participated in a "suicide by cop", and were gleefully found not at fault because the guy warned them he was going to point the (bb) gun at them so that they'd shoot him, after like 57 previous times the police had been called on him for disturbing the peace and threatening his neighbors and swinging around real guns in previous suicide-by-cop attempts)
posted by AzraelBrown at 3:08 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]
In the abstract, abolish the police. In the abstract, fund mental health care. In the very, very specific, fuck this guy. The world is better off without him.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:31 PM on January 9 [16 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:31 PM on January 9 [16 favorites]
QFT: “the intel was not 100 percent.”
posted by chavenet at 3:47 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 3:47 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]
I mean, given that this guy, under the "theory that the business was a front for a child sex slavery ring," fired on the pizzeria while children were in it, well... I'm not sure what I'm supposed to feel about this, but I'm pretty sure that "surprised" isn't it.
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:08 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:08 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]
No offense to OP, who may have simply assumed the obvious, but if the last decade or so has taught me anything, it is that this post's header will prove to be peak naivety. There is quite literally no end of the road for these deplorable - no rabbit hole they won't dig, no notion too far-fetched, no mental depravity too detached or obscene.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 4:12 PM on January 9 [2 favorites]
posted by thecincinnatikid at 4:12 PM on January 9 [2 favorites]
Well, now: this is CERTAIN to put an end to THIS line of conspiracy thinking.
Just tying-up loose ends, that's all.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:13 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]
Just tying-up loose ends, that's all.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:13 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]
I bet he's going to be an annoying ghost too. Too stubborn and cruel to move on.
posted by The_Vegetables at 4:24 PM on January 9
posted by The_Vegetables at 4:24 PM on January 9
all of which explains Trump's recent threats against Greenland and Canada -- to get everyone looking the other way..
posted by philip-random at 4:28 PM on January 9
posted by philip-random at 4:28 PM on January 9
It's Bizarro World now, all the time.
posted by theora55 at 4:37 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]
posted by theora55 at 4:37 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]
Everything about this story is while I don't enjoy visiting America.
This guy served time for acting on the lies he believed. What about the liars who poisoned his mind.
Our moral and legal system struggles with this kind of stocastic terrorism. The goal of the disinfo/propaganda is general, but premeditated, the implementation is un-coordinated and unpredictible in its specifics.
We have no trouble seeing the guilt in a person who fires into a crowd even though that person doesn't know in advance who they will hit and how bad the harm. They are guilty of attempted murder if not murder. But when the process has one more Rube-Goldberg increment of steps, it becomes fuzzy? Poison the aur and water, deny the sick healthcare, poison the publics mind with vile inflammatory lies.... is not murder, its just premeditated unaccountability.
posted by No Climate - No Food, No Food - No Future. at 4:45 PM on January 9 [8 favorites]
This guy served time for acting on the lies he believed. What about the liars who poisoned his mind.
Our moral and legal system struggles with this kind of stocastic terrorism. The goal of the disinfo/propaganda is general, but premeditated, the implementation is un-coordinated and unpredictible in its specifics.
We have no trouble seeing the guilt in a person who fires into a crowd even though that person doesn't know in advance who they will hit and how bad the harm. They are guilty of attempted murder if not murder. But when the process has one more Rube-Goldberg increment of steps, it becomes fuzzy? Poison the aur and water, deny the sick healthcare, poison the publics mind with vile inflammatory lies.... is not murder, its just premeditated unaccountability.
posted by No Climate - No Food, No Food - No Future. at 4:45 PM on January 9 [8 favorites]
premeditated unaccountability
Ooh, I like that phrase.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:47 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]
Ooh, I like that phrase.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:47 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]
Premeditated Unaccountability is the name of my murder drone.
posted by zenon at 5:33 PM on January 9 [4 favorites]
posted by zenon at 5:33 PM on January 9 [4 favorites]
It's a great name for a Culture ROU.
posted by Saxon Kane at 5:39 PM on January 9 [9 favorites]
posted by Saxon Kane at 5:39 PM on January 9 [9 favorites]
Probably already the name of a Culture GCU ship.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:39 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:39 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]
Jinx!
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:39 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:39 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]
Not the first death Q has caused, won't be the last.
posted by praemunire at 6:12 PM on January 9 [2 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 6:12 PM on January 9 [2 favorites]
I think it's likely the cops didn't actually need to shoot him. Cops are way too prone to be violent. A Black man likely wouldn't have been given a warning by a cop (two!) and just immediately shot. It's likely if they had all been Black everyone in the car would be dead/injured. The person who died used a gun to terrorize restaurant goers because of a nonsensical conspiracy theory.
All of those things above can be true.
However the weird mitigating factor in this *individual* case this year (but actually speaks to larger structural racism) is that at least one of the cops knew him already, which changes a lot of assumptions about the police will act.
I'll say when I saw this I thought to my self: jeeze, 2025 is a lot. I lived in the DC area when the Comet incident happened. My one and only visit to Comet wasn't that long before it. So the whole conspiracy theory about felt a bit extra wild and personal.
posted by skynxnex at 7:17 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]
All of those things above can be true.
However the weird mitigating factor in this *individual* case this year (but actually speaks to larger structural racism) is that at least one of the cops knew him already, which changes a lot of assumptions about the police will act.
I'll say when I saw this I thought to my self: jeeze, 2025 is a lot. I lived in the DC area when the Comet incident happened. My one and only visit to Comet wasn't that long before it. So the whole conspiracy theory about felt a bit extra wild and personal.
posted by skynxnex at 7:17 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]
I can't stop singing "Pizzagate Road" to the tune of "Holiday Road," AKA the theme song to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
We're past the season, but it would be a fun cover to work on.
posted by emelenjr at 7:20 PM on January 9 [4 favorites]
We're past the season, but it would be a fun cover to work on.
posted by emelenjr at 7:20 PM on January 9 [4 favorites]
Consider also doing it to the tune of Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road."
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:09 PM on January 9 [6 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:09 PM on January 9 [6 favorites]
Dire Strait's Telegraph Road.
posted by quinndexter at 8:29 PM on January 9 [2 favorites]
posted by quinndexter at 8:29 PM on January 9 [2 favorites]
I still think the FBI should be looking for pizza restaurants that have basements in them. With the amount of projection that comes out of MAGAland, it's tough to believe that the accusations weren't based on something that actually exists somewhere...
posted by Chuffy at 8:55 PM on January 9
posted by Chuffy at 8:55 PM on January 9
Spouse and I were like "sure sounds like he provoked them" and then "but that's what the cops would say, isn't it?".
posted by gentlyepigrams at 10:46 PM on January 9
posted by gentlyepigrams at 10:46 PM on January 9
...fucking America, man. You can't make this shit up.
posted by From Bklyn at 10:51 PM on January 9
posted by From Bklyn at 10:51 PM on January 9
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