Comet Ping-Pong Attack - Fake News Leads to Violence

This weekend a 28 year-old father of two from North Carolina, enraged by fake news stories about a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C. that fake news creators tied to an imaginary child sex abuse ring run by Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Podesta, opened fire in the restaurant and was arrested. No citizens or police were injured.

The man reportedly surrendered when police explained to him that the story was completely fabricated. (Please see the blog post from 11/26/2016 on this website about the damage done to the restaurant's business and reputation by the fake news reports and subsequent Facebook and Twitter posts.)

From the New York Times:  
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"Unbeknown to Mr. Welch, what he had been reading online were fake news articles about Comet Ping Pong, which have swollen in number over time. The false articles against the pizzeria began appearing on social networks and websites in late October, not long before the presidential election, with the restaurant identified as being the headquarters for a child-trafficking ring.

"The articles were soon exposed as false by publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post and the fact-checking website Snopes. But the debunking did not squash the conspiracy theories about Comet Ping Pong — instead, it led to the opposite."

The New York Times story is linked below. The article includes the arrest complaint against the alleged shooter.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/05/us/document-Edgar-Welch-Criminal-Complaint-Comet-Ping-Pong.html​