Joelle Fredman
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) D.C. pizza shop Comet Ping Pong is about to get a whole lot of customers.
As of Thursday, over 1,800 people said they would be patronizing the shop this weekend to show support for the restaurant, which was the target of fake news that escalated to an armed man opening fire inside the store December 6.
Shortly after the election, a conspiracy popped up online that Comet Ping Pong was a front for a sex ring run by Hillary Clinton. The suspect, Edgar Maddison Welch from North Carolina, said he entered the restaurant to investigate these claims.
Eric Sanchez, a patron of the pizza shop, organized an event this weekend to show support to the shaken staff.
“In light of Sunday’s event, I thought it was incumbent to bring the community together to support this great, local establishment that has been serving families all over Washington for over a decade,” Sanchez said.
The event will consist of people eating at the restaurant and thanking staff for the work they do.
Sanchez said that it is time for the community to pull together so that incidents like this don’t plague them again.
“It’s time for us to stand up and organize and figure out a way to dispel some of these fake news stories and see what we can do to prevent future ones from coming up,” Sanchez said. “I think it’s the public’s responsibility to, you know, to really source out the news that they are receiving.”
If someone cannot attend the event, Sanchez has set up a fundraiser through a group that aims to stop human trafficking as well as a GoFundMe page where people can donate to help cover costs of damage to the pizza store and increased security.
Copyright 2016 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (photo: Comet Ping Pong Facebook)
