Man who killed Osama Bin Laden felt sorry for his son after shooting terrorist in front of him
The man who took down Osama Bin Laden has said that he felt sorry for his son, after killing the terrorist in front of him.
Navy Seal Robert O'Neill recounted the famous 2011 Operation Neptune Spear on Joe Budden TV; and while he may have killed the most wanted terrorist in the world, the moment was not a joyous one - as Bin Laden's young son witnessed him being shot.
"I killed Osama bin Laden in front of his son," he said.
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"I just killed Osama bin Laden, and I saw his two-year-old kid. And as a father, I just killed the number one terrorist in the world, and I looked at him and I thought, 'This poor kid has nothing to do with this.'
"And I actually picked him up... Put him over next to his mum on the bed. Two years old, nothing to do with it.
"He didn't even know how to speak yet."
The 46-year-old has previously recounted how exactly he remembers the killing going down.
Speaking on The Brilliantly Dumb Show in 2020, he said: "It hit me after I shot him. Bin Laden was pushing his wife towards me and I was three feet away from him. And I am looking in his eyes and thinking, that's his nose, that's him, he is not surrendering, he is a threat. I've got to kill him.
"I shot him over his wife Amal twice and then once again, and I pulled her towards me because you can sort of tell when there is a threat, and she wasn't a threat.
"So I pulled her and as I'm moving her I can hear him taking his last breath, smoke out of his head where I just shot him."
Robert's version of events is contested by other Navy Seals.
Matt Bissonnette, another member of the raid team, published a book entitled No Easy Day in which he said that he, Robert and 'the point man' found Bin Laden down and bleeding from the head after the latter fired shots from the stairway.
He said that he and Robert then fired shots into his dying body.
Other Seals condemned both for sharing their stories, claiming they breached a code of quiet professionalism in pursuit of publicity.
Jake Massey