An anonymous caller threatened workers at a famed Brooklyn pizzeria where the Clintons once ate, inspired by a fake news story that claimed Hillary was part of a child abuse ring, police said.
The mystery caller dialed hipster pizza joint Roberta’s on Moore St. near Bogart St. in Bushwick about 11:15 a.m. Thursday and told a 24-year-old worker, “You are going to bleed and be tortured,” cops said.
The next day, a caller rang the pizzeria about 5 p.m. and asked whether the restaurant had any ties to Pizzagate — a fake news story reporting that Hillary Clinton and her adviser John Podesta ran a child sex ring out of the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, D.C.
The calls were triggered by a video posted to social media by someone using the handle “Drumstick74,” police said. The video suggests that both Comet and Roberta’s have similarly disturbing images on their Instagram pages and that Roberta’s was somehow involved in the phony scandal.
The fake Comet story became very real Sunday, when an assault rifle-toting man walked into the restaurant and opened fire.
Edgar Maddison Welch, of Salisbury, told police he decided to “self-investigate” whether the so-called “Pizza Gate” conspiracy theory was true.
He went into the restaurant and pointed the gun at an employee and fired at least one shot as patrons with children and employees scattered. Nobody was hit.
Welch was arrested on assault charges.
