PizzaGate Gunman Is an Alex Jones Listener With Bible Verses Tattooed on His Back

‘The Intel on This Wasn’t 100 Percent’ Gunman, Who Recently Had Internet Service Installed, Admits

The gunman who shot up a Washington, D.C. pizzeria Sunday because he believed a fake news report has given his first interview, to The New York Times, and it’s disturbing and revealing. Edgar M. Welch, 28, of Salisbury, North Carolina drove 350 miles and just happened to bring his assault rifle with him even though he says he went just to take a “closer look” at the scene and “shine some light on it.”

In case you’re not caught up yet on what is being called “Pizzagate,” here’s a brief overview.

A disgusting fake news story that, coincidentally, happens to have been promoted by the son of Donald Trump’s incoming national security advisor, went viral, roaming the internet for over a month. (A similar-sounding story was promoted by the father, Trump’s incoming national security advisor Michael T. Flynn.)

The story, which seems to have started, and then definitely took off on a pro-Trump Reddit page, Snopes reports, falsely claims the pizzeria, Comet Ping Pong, is secretly housing a pedophile sex trafficking ring that is linked to or even led by Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman John Podesta, and involves Wikileaks.

The real owner of the pizzeria and his employees have been getting death threats since the start of this incident.

So, after “recently having internet service installed at his house,” the New York Times notes Welsch, the Pizzagate gunman, said he was “really able to look into it.” 

He said that substantial evidence from a combination of sources had left him with the “impression something nefarious was happening.” He said one article on the subject led to another and then another. He said he did not like the term fake news, believing it was meant to diminish stories outside the mainstream media, which he does not completely trust.

The Times notes Welch “has listened to Alex Jones, whose radio show traffics in conspiracy theories and who once said that Mrs. Clinton ‘has personally murdered and chopped up’ children.”

Welch told the Times “he had grown religious in the last few years. Tattooed on his back are Bible verses: ‘Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.'”

Welch “felt his ‘heart breaking over the thought of innocent people suffering.’ Once he got to the pizzeria, there was an abrupt change of plans,” the Times continues. “Mr. Welch would not say why he took a military-style assault rifle inside the restaurant and fired it. According to court documents, Mr. Welch said he had come armed to help rescue the children.”

“The intel on this wasn’t 100 percent,” Welch admits.

 

Image by Elizabeth Murphy via Flickr and a CC license