Police: Gunman Motivated by Fake News.
COSTELLO: Fake news stories can have real consequences, potentially deadly consequences. Police say 28-year-old Edgar Madison Welch stormed into the Comet Ping Pong restaurant in D.C. armed with a shotgun. He told police he wanted to "investigate Pizza Gate." It's a totally bogus online conspiracy theory that D.C. police confirmed as fictitious. The false news was spread by Michael Flynn Jr., who is the son of Trump's new U.S. National Security adviser, Michael Flynn Sr. After the incident, Flynn Jr. tweeted this, "Until Pizza Gate is proven to be false, it will remain a story. The left seems to forget Podesta e-mails and the many coincidences tied to it." CNN's Joe Johns is -- following this story. He joins us now, live from Washington. Good morning.</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. You really have to file this under what happens when fake news stories use real names, real places, but false facts. So, 28-year-old Edgar Madison Welch came here to this location, Comet Ping Pong, with a rifle, apparently fired it. Police took him into custody. He was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. No one was injured because the people saw the gun and started running away. When police took him and sat him down and asked him what happened, he said he was here essentially to take a look, to self-investigate, if you will, "Pizza Gate" which they call fictitious online conspiracy -- theory that involves the restaurant and claims that Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager John Podesta were involved in a child sex ring, which all of that, certainly is false. Now, as I've said, arrested and charged, the investigation continues. It also happens to be something this restaurant and its owner --