Robert O'Neill, ex-Navy SEAL who shot bin Laden, says he is innocent of DUI charge

Former Navy SEAL expresses regret after arrest, but says insomina and sleeping pills to blame

Robert O'Neill, a former Navy SEAL team six member, said he fired the shot that killed Osama Bin Laden (AP)

Robert O’Neill, the former US Navy Seal who has publicly claimed that he fired the shots that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, has blamed prescription sleeping aids for his condition when he was arrested by police on a charge of driving under the influence in Montana.

The one-time elite soldier was found asleep at the wheel of his car early Friday with the engine running by a clerk at a corner shop in Butte, Montana, his hometown, who then called the police. The officers who went to the scene said that after they woke him, Mr O’Neill appeared confused and lethargic.

Now retired from the military, Mr O’Neill refused a breathalyser test and was then arrested and jailed by the officers on a charge of DUI, a misdemeanour, the booking report said. He was freed after payment of a $685 bond.

Later on Friday, he issued a statement asserting his innocence in the case and blaming insomnia. “The facts are that I took a prescribed sleep aide [sic] to help with long-standing severe insomnia,“ Mr O'Neill said ”While the timing was bad and I highly regret this decision, I am innocent of the charge and have entered a plea of Not Guilty.“ He added: “I am confident I will soon be cleared of the matter.”

While there is normally a strict code of silence about SEAL operations, Mr O’Neill began discussing his role in the 2011 raid on Mr bin Laden’s Pakistan compound, according to the Associated Press, asserting that the country had a right to know what happened. He told the Washington Post in 2014 that he fired the two shots that killed the al-Qaeda leader and mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Ed Lester, the Sheriff of Butte, a large mining town, said in a statement that he has “great respect” for Mr O’Neill and “what he has done for this country”. He went on: “That being said, this incident was handled in the same way as any other DUI investigation. Mr O’Neill has the same presumption of innocence as any other citizen.”