The retired Navy SEAL who said he shot al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the forehead publicly identified himself on Thursday.
Robert O’Neill, 38, told The Washington Post in an interview that he fired the two shots that killed bin Laden. He first recounted the story in February 2013 to Esquire magazine, which identified him only as “the shooter.” One current and one former SEAL confirmed to The Associated Press that O’Neill was long known to have fired the shots that killed the leader of the international terror group responsible for the September 11 attacks.
O’Neill told the Post that shots also were fired by two other SEAL team members, including Matt Bissonnette, who described the raid somewhat differently in his book, No Easy Day . His lawyer said Bissonnette is under federal criminal investigation over whether he disclosed classified information in the book, which he did not vet with the military. In the Esquire piece, O’Neill makes no mention of Bissonnette shooting bin Laden.
O’Neill discussed his role in the raid during a private meeting with relatives of victims of the 9/11 attack on New York’s World Trade Center before the recent opening of the National September 11 Memorial Museum. He donated the shirt he was wearing in the operation, which is now on display there.
Rick Woolard, a former SEAL team commander, who previously urged his comrades to avoid discussing recent operations, said active-duty SEALs are “pretty much very disappointed and I’d have to say angry with guys who have used their deeds and those of their companions for personal gain.”
In the Esquire piece, O’Neill said he was one of two SEALs who went up to the third floor of the building where bin Laden was hiding. The first man fired two shots at bin Laden as he peeked out of the bedroom, but O’Neill said those shots missed. The man then tackled two women in the hallway outside of bin Laden’s bedroom.
O’Neill went into the bedroom, he recounts. “There was bin Laden standing there. He had his hands on a woman’s shoulders, pushing her ahead, not exactly toward me but by me, in the direction of the hallway commotion. It was his youngest wife, Amal.”
O’Neill added, “In that second, I shot him two times in the forehead. Bap! Bap! The second time as he’s going down. He crumpled onto the floor in front of his bed and I hit him again. Bap! Same place. ... He was dead.”
