Below is a timeline of the tweets/articles I gathered yesterday. I have converted the times on this post to EST which is what Washington DC uses. Twitter displays in PST and archive.is uses UTC.

To begin, alleged witness Sharif Silmi said he was inside CPP when the gunman entered.

He confirmed three times in tweets that the man had a shotgun, he confirmed in a tweet when asked that he saw the suspect, he was the one who tweeted the picture of the gunman surrendering to police, he was one of the first to start tweeting about the incident, and he never said anything about an assault rifle.

He also tweeted later on that he was one of the last three people out of CPP and he said they did not see or hear any shots fired. "That is shocking devel." he said at 9:05 PM EST in response to Abby D. Phillip, who is a "Washington Post Political Reporter" according to her Twitter bio. Phillip had tweeted that the suspect had fired his weapon.

Here is a first hand witness who was in CPP during the incident and who is saying, in a tweet to Phillip, that he was one of the last three people out and yet they never saw or heard any shots. This would seem to contradict Phillip's regurgitating of the claims of police in her tweet which said,

Just to be perfectly clear how real this was: The suspect actually fired his weapon, according to police.

Phoebe Connelly, an "exec. producer/product owner" for Wapo according to her bio, earlier tweeted Silmi asking for permission to use his photos. So Wapo was clearly aware of Silmi, as they should have been.

Yet Phillip took no interest in Silmi's comment, at least not publicly in a tweeted response to him. To my knowledge (please correct me if I'm wrong) no witnesses reported seeing or hearing any gun shots, that is all coming from police reports.

Debra Alfarone, at TV Anchor at WUSA9, tweeted at 4:57 PM EST that,

Police Chief Peter Newsham says man walked into Comet Ping Pong & fired into the ground - more than 1 shot.

So who exactly saw or heard these shots? Was this after everyone but the suspect had left CPP? He shot the ground for no reason? And no one outside the building was within ear shot?

And what kind of gun did he have? Silmi clearly confirms multiple times that it was a shotgun, and he confirms that he did indeed make visual contact with the suspect.

Another individual, Kent Hoshiko, tweeted that he was hiding in the Red Fox coffee shop next door, and also that he heard no shots. He stated that he was about to head into CPP prior to the incident, indicating that he was never inside CPP when the events began. And he said that CPP employees and customers came over to his location in Red Fox after everyone left CPP, and that CPP employees told him that the man exiting CPP with his hands on his head was the guy who entered with the gun, indicating that Hoshiko never saw the man with the gun originally.

Hoshiko did say that the man was carrying, "what appeared to be an assault rifle" but that was directly after saying CPP employees and customers had come over to Red Fox. So it seems that this is based off of second hand reports from unidentified witnesses.

Have any witnesses been identified who have reported seeing a rifle?

Gareth Wade, a Washington resident inside CPP, said to the Washington Post,

The servers came up to us and said, uh, a man had just walked into the building past us into the back of the building, he seems to have, like, a shotgun or a rifle type of thing, um, and said we ought to vacate the buildings. So we walked out the front of the building, um, took our pizzas and our beer. [laughing]

Wade makes it sound as though it was the servers who told him about the suspect and the shotgun/rifle, neither he nor his friend made any indication that they had visual contact with the armed suspect (and of course idiot Wapo doesn't bother to ask basic fucking questions).

In addition, Silmi tweeted, "I think he was trying to stash the shotgun in the back to use later on," Hoshiko tweeted, "Employees said he walked past everyone towards the back of the restaurant," and Wade said, "a man had just walked into the building past us into the back of the building." What exactly was he doing trying to get to the back? What kind of interaction did he have with anyone before heading towards that location?

Benjamin Freed and Jessica Sidman of the Washingtonian wrote,

Acting DC Police Chief Peter Newsham told reporters Sunday evening that Welch walked into Comet Ping Pong and did fire at least one shot into the ground. Police added that the Welch's car is registered in North Carolina.

Welch made no vocal threats or demands during the incident inside Comet Ping Pong, police say.

What? So he made no verbal threats or demands (these two paragraphs are still in the article as of now), he just made a non-verbal threat of firing into the ground at some point, which no one heard or saw, and then the police just reported the shots at a later time? How exactly do "journalists" string these two paragraphs together without any clarification??

The official police report released on the 5th, which, naturally, is extremely vague, says Welch pointed a firearm at an employee who fled and then called the police. Then Welch, "proceeded to discharge the rifle inside of the establishment." Two firearms were recovered inside the location and an additional weapon was recovered from Welch's vehicle, according to the report.

Everyone but the police, and apparently one employee whom they interviewed, keeps saying the suspect just walked towards the back without saying anything. The Washingtonian article also stated,

Matt Carr owns Little Red Fox, a cafe and coffeeshop next door to Comet. Carr was making sandwiches when a couple of Comet Ping Pong waiters rushed in his cafe and market and told him to lock the doors.

They'd seen the man with a gun blow past the host stand and head to the back of the restaurant. He didn't say a word to anyone from what they could tell.

Did he do a silent drive-by pointing of the firearm as he tip-toed full steam towards the back? Then he placed a silencer on the assault rifle and shot the floor a few times after patiently waiting for everyone to get completely out of ear shot?

A Washington Post article published at 8:07 AM EST on December 5th provided much needed clarification on these obvious questions,

Police said Welch proceeded to discharge the rifle inside the restaurant; they think that all other occupants had fled when Welch began shooting.

They think? How about you fucking ask them? They don't know? Did they interview any witnesses at any point?

The article continued,

A D.C. police report made public Monday says Welch had been armed with an AR-15 assault-style rifle. The report also says police seized a Colt .38 caliber handgun and a shotgun. One of those weapons was found inside the restaurant; the other in the suspect's car. Police did not specify the locations.

The Metropolitan PD provided documents later published by the Washingtonian which contained the seven charges against Welch: assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying a pistol without a license (outside home or place of business), unlawful possession of ammunition, unlawful discharge of a firearm, possession of an unregistered firearm/unlawful possession of a firearm or destructive device, possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device, and destruction of property $1,000 or more.

The assault with a dangerous weapon charge lists "handgun, shotgun, rifle" and alleges that the assault occurred inside the restaurant.

The carrying a pistol without a license charge does not list a weapon (I suppose it's presumed to be the handgun), and alleges that this occurred inside the restaurant.

The unlawful possession of ammunition charge lists "handgun, shotgun, rifle" and alleges that this occurred inside the restaurant.

The unlawful discharge of a firearm charge lists "handgun, shotgun, rifle" and alleges that this occurred inside the restaurant.

The possession of an unregistered firearm charge lists "handgun, shotgun, rifle" and alleges that this occurred inside the restaurant.

The possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device charge lists "handgun, shotgun, rifle" and alleges that this occurred inside the restaurant.

And the destruction of property charge is presumably related to the items listed below all of the charges, which includes a door, door lock, computer tower, and barrier wall.

Also listed are a Colt AR-15, Colt .38 handgun, a shotgun "unknown or unlisted," and a folding knife, among other miscellaneous items. The report did not specify where the weapons were recovered.