The man who brought a gun into a pizza restaurant to “self-investigate” a series of fake news stories was charged Monday with four offenses, including assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a pistol without a license.

The US attorney’s office for the District of Columbia also charged Edgar Welch, 28, of Durham, North Carolina with the unlawful discharge of a firearm and carrying a rifle or a shotgun outside a home or place of business. He is being detained until a preliminary hearing in DC superior court on Thursday.

On Sunday afternoon, Welch walked into Comet Ping Pong, a popular pizza spot in the Chevy Chase neighborhood, wielding a shotgun and fired three shots, according to the charging documents. Comet has been part of a bizarre fake news conspiracy that drew unsubstantiated links between the Hillary Clinton campaign and a fictitious child sex ring, which the stories said were being run from secret tunnels beneath the restaurant.

Police said that Welch had gone into Comet to “self-investigate” the restaurant. Welch told police he had “read online that the Comet restaurant was harboring child sex slaves and that he wanted to see for himself if they were there”, according to the charging document. He said he was armed to help rescue them. And police said he “surrendered peacefully when he found no evidence that underage children were being harbored in the restaurant”.

Welch is one of several people who have come to the area searching for the supposed tunnels in recent days. The difference is that he brought a gun that charging documents say he pointed at at least one police officer on Sunday, before he was led onto the street outside and arrested.