US police have arrested a man wielding an assault rifle who entered a pizza restaurant that was the target of fake news reports it was operating a child abuse ring led by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her top campaign aide.
An unidentified 35-year-old man was being held for questioning after police were called to the Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington near the Maryland border, said Aquita Brown, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police Department in the nation’s capital.
The suspect entered the restaurant and pointed a gun at a restaurant employee, who fled and notified authorities, police said. The man then discharged the weapon inside the restaurant. There were no injuries.
Two weapons were found inside the restaurant and a third one was recovered from the man’s vehicle, police added.
They said the suspect during an interview with investigators revealed that he came to the establishment to “self-investigate” Pizzagate, the police statement said. Pizzagate is a baseless conspiracy, which falsely claims Clinton and her campaign chief John Podesta were running a child sex ring from the restaurant’s backrooms.
Police said there was no active investigation of child abuse allegations relating to the restaurant.
A Reuters witness at the restaurant with his one-year-old child said it was crowded when the gunman entered, with many families dining.
Last month, various media outlets, including the Washington Post and New York Times, reported on internet postings that had sparked death threats against the owner of the restaurant.
The attack on Comet was considered an example of how fake news reports that proliferated during the election year impacted people’s lives.
Comet is a DC pizza place that has been the subject of vile anti-Hillary internet conspiracies. And here we are: https://t.co/kwRLzr8BrR
— Raf Sanchez (@rafsanchez) December 4, 2016
A fake news story was even tweeted by General Mike Flynn, Donald Trump’s pick for national security adviser. In the 3 November tweet he linked to a discredited story that suggested Hillary Clinton and her “crew” were involved in child abuse and added the comment “U decide.”
U decide - NYPD Blows Whistle on New Hillary Emails: Money Laundering, Sex Crimes w Children, etc...MUST READ! https://t.co/O0bVJT3QDr
— General Flynn (@GenFlynn) November 3, 2016
After the incident at Comet, the police department said in a statement that it was “monitoring the situation and aware of general threats being made against this establishment.”
“We’ve directed the staff to notify MPD should they receive specific threats or have concerns about their safety.“
The Reuters witness who was inside Comet at around 3pm ET (2000 GMT) said he was paying his bill when he saw a man entering the restaurant’s front door. “It appeared to us he had a long rifle with him. We scattered,” he said.
The restaurant began to empty and some staff also exited, according to the witness.
A police department tweet later stated, “Suspect armed w/assault rifle taken into custody.”
Reuters contributed to this report