Man pleads guilty in Washington pizzeria shooting over fake news
Source: Reuters
Fri Mar 24, 2017 | 10:39am EDT
By Ian Simpson | WASHINGTON
A North Carolina man pleaded guilty on Friday to opening fire in a Washington pizzeria that fake news reports claimed housed a child sex ring linked to 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Edgar Welch, 28, of Salisbury, was accused of firing at least three shots from an AR-15 rifle inside the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in December and pointing the gun at an employee after showing up to investigate the online conspiracy rumors. No one was hurt.
Welch pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to a federal charge of interstate transportation of a firearm with intent to commit an offense and a local charge of assault with a dangerous weapon.
He could face up to two years in prison on the federal charge and a maximum five years for the assault charge. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson scheduled sentencing for June 22.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-washingtondc-gunman-idUSKBN16V1XC
LS_Editor
(893 posts)CanonRay
(14,112 posts)elmac
(4,642 posts)for spreading and the continuing spreading of this fake news item. FBI is investigating.
sdfernando
(4,937 posts)make him serve maximum sentences and make them sequential not concurrent....these a-holes piss me off majorly!!!
Eugene
(61,938 posts)Source: Media Matters
Blog 4 hours 36 min ago ERIC HANANOKI & TIMOTHY JOHNSON
Conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones was pressured to air an apology for his role in spreading the false Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which led to a Jones listener firing a gun inside a Washington, D.C. pizzeria. Jones aired a pre-taped video in which he acknowledged that he made commentary about the pizzeria owner that in hindsight I regret, and for which I apologize to him.
On December 4, Edgar Maddison Welch entered Comet Ping Pong during business hours while wielding an assault weapon to self-investigate the false conspiracy theory that the restaurant was helping the campaign of Hillary Clinton traffic children. After patrons and employees fled, Welch fired several shots. On March 24, The Washington Post reported that Welch had pleaded guilty to two violations of federal and local gun laws.
The New York Times interviewed Welch several days after the shooting, and he told the paper that he was a listener of Jones show and that Jones touches on some issues that are viable, but that sometimes Jones goes off the deep end. The criminal complaint against Welch alleged that he shared a YouTube video with the message Watch PIZZAGATE: The Bigger Picture. Alex Jones website Infowars published a December 1 article with the headline Pizzagate: The Bigger Picture which included an Infowars YouTube video.
Following the Comet incident, Jones claimed that Welch is an admitted actor and that the incident is classic scripting. Im not saying its scripted -- it has all the telltale signs, theyve been caught doing it before.
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Read more: https://mediamatters.org/blog/2017/03/24/alex-jones-apologizes-pizzagate-coverage-blames-other-media-outlets/215804
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)benEzra
(12,148 posts)count as felonies. A BATFE Form 4473 asks if you've ever been convicted of a crime *punishable* by more than 1 year in prison, even if the actual sentence was less. So it's a life sentence for him in terms of civil rights revocation.