The “Pizzagate” gunman who in 2016 barged into a D.C. pizza shop with a rifle after believing it was part of a Satan-worshipping pedophile ring died in an armed standoff with North Carolina police, authorities revealed Thursday.

Kannapolis police said Edgar Maddison Welch, 36, of Salisbury, North Carolina, was shot by officers around 10 p.m. Saturday after Welch pulled a gun on an officer during a traffic stop.

Police said an officer stopped the vehicle because he knew it was Welch’s from a previous arrest, and Welch had an active warrant in another case.

When an officer opened the passenger door to handcuff Welch, police said the ex-convict pulled a gun from inside his jacket and aimed it at the officer.

Authorities said two officers drew their weapons and told Welch to drop his firearm. They both opened fire after Welch refused to lower his gun. 

He died Monday from his injuries, police revealed Thursday evening.

In December 2016, police said Welch drove from North Carolina to Comet Ping Pong on Connecticut Avenue Northwest to “self-investigate” “Pizzagate” — a conspiracy theory that accused Democratic politicians of being part of a secretive child sex-trafficking ring.

Online forums promoted the conspiracy by claiming to have deciphered clues about the purported child abuse from leaked emails from Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and former campaign chair John Podesta.

The restaurant was supposedly linked to the ring because, among other things, details of its decor and logos were purportedly allusions to Satan or the occult.

No hard evidence has ever been found of the purported sex abuse and many details of the conspiracy have been debunked as false or even impossible.

Welch, armed with an assault rifle, briefly aimed his weapon at an employee during the incident and then shot a door handle to a storage room. No one was injured and Welch was soon taken into custody.

“Raiding a pedo ring, possible [sic] sacrificing the lives of a few for the lives of many,” Welch texted a friend, according to court documents, in hopes of recruiting them for the effort. “Standing up against a corrupt system that kidnaps, tortures and rapes ­babies and children in our own back yard.”

He pleaded guilty in 2017 to assault with a dangerous weapon and federal interstate transportation of a firearm. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment. 

Welch told The New York Times that same year he “just wanted to do some good and went about it the wrong way … I regret how I handled the situation.”

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.