They said the suspect during an interview with investigators revealed that he came to the establishment to "self-investigate" Pizzagate, the police statement said.
Police said that Welch had gone into Comet to "self-investigate" the restaurant.
He told the police that he had come to "self-investigate" a conspiracy theory, or set of theories, known as Pizzagate.
The man who brought a gun into a pizza restaurant to "self-investigate" a series of fake news stories was charged Monday with four offenses, including assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a pistol without a license.
The oddly medieval demonization of Hillary Clinton continues among Trump supporters: see the conspiracy theory that posits her as a child-sex-trafficking witch, hiding in tunnels beneath a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant, where last week a man turned up with an assault-style rifle to "self-investigate" the claim.
(Less than two weeks after Pizzagate was banned, a man fired a semiautomatic rifle inside a D.C. pizzeria called Comet Ping Pong, in an attempt to "self-investigate" claims that the restaurant's basement was a dungeon full of kidnapped children. Comet Ping Pong does not have a basement).
US could see extreme rains increase of 400% by end of century People who spread stories such as the the fake news "Pizzagate," which motivated a gunman to "self-investigate" a pizza restaurant, do not necessarily believe what they're reading, writes Ijeoma Oluo, but they do believe that liberals are their enemy, who they are at war with.
Fake news stories alleged that Clinton's allies had been running a child sex ring in the Comet Ping Pong pizza parlor in Washington led to threats against the restaurant and a gunman storming in to "self-investigate" and firing an assault rifle on Sunday.
On Sunday, a man with an assault rifle turned up at the pizza place to "self-investigate" the fake news story, police said.
After Jones shared his Pizzagate conspiracy, which claimed that Democrats oversaw a child trafficking ring within a Washington, D.C. pizzeria, a man armed with an assault rifle visited the establishment to "self-investigate".
