WASHINGTON, D.C. — A North Carolina man who fired an assault rifle inside a District of Columbia restaurant during his investigation of a conspiracy theory dubbed โpizzagateโ 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 โliterally left psychological wreckage.โ
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 โforged aheadโ with an โill-conceived plotโ even though others urged him to abandon it. If Welch believed children were being harmed, he should have notified law enforcement, the judge said.
Welchโs attorney had asked for a sentence of 1ยฝ years in prison. Prosecutors wanted 4ยฝ years.
Welch spoke briefly to apologize, saying he realized that his words โcannot undo or change what already happened.โ
His mother, father, sister and fiancรฉe were in the courtroom.
Two Comet Ping Pong workers and owner James Alefantis spoke before sentencing. Alefantis called โpizzagateโ a โviscous web of liesโ and said many people had suffered because of Welchโs actions.
