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Welch was killed

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According to a report on CNN, Welch was killed yesterday, see https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/09/politics/pizzagate-gunman-killed-police-shooting/index.html?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc --Cholo Aleman (talk) 14:55, 10 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

And what has this death to do with Pizzagate? Slatersteven (talk) 14:57, 10 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
He's the dude who wandered in with a gun and demanded to see the basement of a place that had no basement. GMGtalk 15:10, 10 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, but what has his killing got to do with it, how is the killing related? Slatersteven (talk) 15:34, 10 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
He was the perpetrator of the entire Comet Ping Pong pizza shop hostage situation, so I'd say his death is relevant. — The Hand That Feeds You:Bite 15:52, 10 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I'm unsure what your revert has to do with it being "unrelated." I added a preamble "Eight years after the initial incident at Comet Ping Pong, ..." because I wanted to make clear the temporal distance from the original gun discharge event. This seems to me important as someone skim reading could carry away the impression that Welch was shot in the restaurant. All the best: Rich Farmbrough 18:17, 10 January 2025 (UTC).[reply]
Because his shooting was not related to pizzagate, but to an unrelated offense. It literally tells us nothing about this conspiracy theory. THis page is not about him. Slatersteven (talk) 18:21, 10 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
OK, turns out you made two reverts, one of which was a shotgun revert of my changes. The second one was to remove all reference to his death. The bulk of your reverts has been reverted. Since you are only concerned with presence of a discussion of his death on this page, I will reinstate my other changes. In a separate edit I will reinstate the "eight years" contextualization, which, if anything, should make the text more palatable to you. Please do not make any more shotgun reverts.
I support having a sentence about his death on this page. I suspect it should not be where it is, maybe I'll move it, maybe I won't.
All the best: Rich Farmbrough 19:24, 10 January 2025 (UTC).[reply]
He is one of the most notable Pizzagate individuals due to his actions at Comet Ping Pong. His death, after a string of further convictions & parole violations, seems relevant to this page. — The Hand That Feeds You:Bite 19:25, 10 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Protected edit request 10 January 2025

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Welch's death by police is described twice with the same details in the "Criminal Responses" - once at the end of the fourth paragraph and once in the newly-created final paragraph. Please remove one. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.193.204.66 (talk) 21:43, 10 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The two mentions of his shooting death do not agree on the date. And the first says that he was shot and killed, but then says he did not die until two days later. Jeepien (talk) 17:31, 22 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
He was shot, taken to the hospital, and died later, per sources. I've removed the redundant paragraph & moved the relevant cite to the later paragraph. — The Hand That Feeds You:Bite 14:32, 23 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 16 March 2025

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change

"On December 4, 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch, a 28-year-old man from Salisbury, North Carolina, arrived at Comet Ping Pong and fired three shots from an AR-15 style rifle that struck the restaurant's walls, a desk, and a door." 

to

"On December 4, 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch, a 28-year-old man from Salisbury, North Carolina, arrived at Comet Ping Pong and later during his search for children fired three shots from an AR-15 style rifle that struck the restaurant's walls, a desk, and a door in an attempt to open a lock."

The Bolded words are additions. The original sounds as if he drove up and opened fire on the restaurant like a massacre. The way I have worded it also sounds as if there actually were children. The sources also say the bullets did open the lock. Would love to fix these issues mentioned but currently don't have the time so submitting this as is. Original sources contain the added information. Star In Space (talk) 04:38, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Doing a final read over and this sounds confusing so to clarify; The first issue is the one I tried to solve and the last 2 stem from my additions. I plan on reworking the additions at a later time Star In Space (talk) 04:41, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
 Question: So, do you still want to implement this edit request? What did you mean when you said "I plan on reworking the the additions at a later time"? Warriorglance(talk to me) 05:50, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Ok I'm just now realizing I could have saved the source on a notepad document or something instead of submitting this half-baked edit. anyways I just wanted to save my work for later not have that pushed. Here is my actual edit request (sorry for abusing the system by using it in ways it shouldn't be used :P )
"On December 4, 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch, a 28-year-old man from Salisbury, North Carolina, arrived at Comet Ping Pong visibly armed and began his search for rumored children. To open a locked closet, he fired three shots from an AR-15 style rifle that also struck the restaurant's walls, a desk, and the door" Star In Space (talk) 14:59, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I am unsure this adds anything we need to know. Slatersteven (talk) 15:21, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
If the sources explain why he chose to open fire, I don't see why it shouldn't be included in the article Warriorglance(talk to me) 16:49, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
We do "Welch later told police that he had planned to "self-investigate" the conspiracy theory" and "Welch told police he had read online that the Comet restaurant was harboring child sex slaves and that he wanted to see for himself if they were there" All we leave out is the claim he was trying to shoot open a lock. Slatersteven (talk) 16:53, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The reason I made the request is because if we leave out what he was trying to do, it sounds as if he just opened fire as soon as he came to the building. Im ok with the lock part being left out if there is something alluding to him shooting after some time and not immediately. The fact that no casualties or injuries were listed should be enough to say that he wasn't shooting at people anyways. Star In Space (talk) 17:33, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
No, because many shots intended to injure fail to do so; "no injuries" is not the same as "was not shooting to kill". Mathglot (talk) 20:58, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
You are so right, oops! Star In Space (talk) 21:19, 16 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Still think some edit clarifying he did not open fire into the crowd should be implemented. Star In Space (talk) 02:22, 17 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Do the sources say that specifically, or did they just say he shot at door, wall, and lock, and we are surmising that? There are a lot of things he didn't shoot at, but we cannot include them, unless they were a significant part of reports about the incident. Mathglot (talk) 02:42, 17 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Here is what the sources say:
Source 1
Police said Welch told them that he came to Comet Ping Pong to personally investigate “Pizzagate,” an elaborate internet theory that a collusion of evil forces from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign operates a pedophile sex ring out of secret catacombs beneath the restaurant.Police said he fired three shots from an AR-15, then surrendered peacefully after finding no evidence of child sex slaves in the Chevy Chase restaurant
Source 2
...Welch fired the rifle multiple times at a locked closet door...Welch ultimately did not shoot anyone and surrendered after he found no evidence of hidden rooms or sex trafficking
Source 3
...Welch surrendered to police peacefully after failing to find any evidence of the abused children he believed were trapped in the pizzeria’s secret passages...he pointed his gun at one employee and fired multiple rounds into Comet Ping Pong’s walls, a computer desk and a door.
My opinion is that we include the "searching for sex slaves" part as it is given in all three sources. I'll let you guys decide on the rest. Best, Warriorglance(talk to me) 15:30, 17 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
We already do, almost word for word. Slatersteven (talk) 15:40, 17 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The way it's done does not clarify well that he shot while searching.
"On December 4, 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch, a 28-year-old man from Salisbury, North Carolina, arrived at Comet Ping Pong and fired three shots from an AR-15 style rifle that struck the restaurant's walls, a desk, and a door."
If someone were to read this without prior knowledge it could easily be misinterpreted that the person drove up and immediately started shooting at the building. This is not the case. He shot after searching for some time and not at people but at a lock. Star In Space (talk) 23:22, 17 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It was hardly a "search" when conducted at gunpoint. — The Hand That Feeds You:Bite 14:40, 18 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It's still a search even if it's conducted at gunpoint right? What would you call it? Star In Space (talk) 21:25, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
A hostage situation. — The Hand That Feeds You:Bite 13:58, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
As he held no powers of search, and as this was in fact an illegal search, no we do not have to say what he was doing, any more than if this was a burglary. Slatersteven (talk) 15:53, 18 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Star In Space, you seem to be focusing on the delay between walking in, and shooting. What does it matter if he "immediately" started shooting, or walked in, enjoyed a pizza and soda, and then started shooting? Akin to journalism standards like "If it bleeds, it leads", the act of shooting brings a certain level of newsworthiness to a journalistic report. While searching was also reported, and I see no reason to exclude it entirely, it is clear what the most important part of the story is. Had he walked in, demanded to see the sex-trafficked children, and then left quietly after discovering that there weren't any, I don't believe we would have read anything about it. In fact, it seems highly likely to me that other such people may have come in for that same reason, but we will never know, because just looking around, asking about sex-trafficked children, and then leaving, isn't newsworthy; it's just another nut case that shows up in a fast-food establishment muttering about god-knows-what inanities. Mathglot (talk) 22:25, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I believe it matters because without delay it seems as if his main objective was to shoot everybody inside the building and then search. His goal was not to shoot at people in the building, that should be clear I think.
Also, I have no intentions of starting an argument. Sorry if I come across as brash, i'm not the best with communicating over text. Star In Space (talk) 23:55, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for including those. They are all three very unclear about sequencing of events.By the numbers:
  1. Doesn't say which came first, shooting or searching. Almost sounds like searching came after, if you had to pick one.
  2. Ditto. Here, it seems 50-50 (in my reading) which came first.
  3. Maybe searching first, by 70-30?
So, I think you could add something about failing to find evidence of sex-trafficked children if it doesn't already say so, but you would also have to leave the wording vague enough so as not to imply which came first. Even better, is find a couple more sources, where the chronology is clear. That's my 2 cents. Mathglot (talk) 23:58, 17 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • The guy came into an eatery with an AR-15 style weapon, designed for mass human kills, and fired shots endangering those who hadn't already fled the invasion, because he believed an idiotic conspiracy theory. I really don't see why we should take so much effort to soft pedal this. I would certainly have been terrorized had I been there. O3000, Ret. (talk) 00:12, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Ok, a lot of people are very against this edit so I'm going to concede because obviously I'm in the minority here. BUT before I do, i'm explaining myself again because…… anyways:
    I think a drive by shooting (which is sort of how it reads, more on that in another comment) is different from a quick search and shooting at a lock. I think the way it reads could lead to a misunderstanding.
    Well, I've explained my point of view, ill leave it up to ya'll now (which I'm guessing is a no based on everyone's comments but hey thats the point of suggestions right) Star In Space (talk) 00:42, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]