FRISCO, Texas — A former Navy SEAL member who said he fired the shots that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 was arrested in Texas, authorities said.
Robert J. O’Neill, 47, was booked into the Collin County Jail on Wednesday, according to online records, and was released the same day after posting $3,500 bail, The Dallas Morning News reported.
According to a written statement by the Frisco Police Department, O’Neill was arrested in the suburb located approximately 28 miles north of Dallas. He was charged with a Class A misdemeanor of assault causing bodily injury and a Class C misdemeanor charge of public intoxication, according to the newspaper.
Jail records only show the assault charge, the Morning News reported.
On Friday, officials with the Frisco Police Department declined to release more information about the arrest. O’Neill did not respond to requests for comment, and it was unclear whether he had an attorney, according to the newspaper.
According to social media posts, O’Neill was in Frisco on Tuesday to record a podcast at an area cigar lounge, the Morning News reported.
O’Neill, who grew up in Butte, Montana, was a member of the Navy SEAL Team Six that shot and killed bin Laden, the leader of the Islamist group al-Qaeda, on May 2, 2011. The SEALs killed bin Laden at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
O’Neill claimed that he fired the shots that killed bin Laden, the Morning News reported. U.S. government officials have neither confirmed nor denied his account.
He published a 2017 book, “The Operator,” which detailed the SEAL operation.
O’Neill has been awarded two Silver Stars, four Bronze Stars and a Joint Service Commendation medal, according to the Morning News.
In 2020, O’Neill was banned by Delta Air Lines after he allegedly removed his face mask during a flight at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the newspaper reported.
Four years earlier, O’Neill had a DUI charge dropped when prosecutors agreed that the cause was a prescription medication he used to treat a condition related to his military service, according to the Montana Standard reported.