Bin Laden Shooter Victim of Home Invasion – Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Rob O’Neill, the Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden, fought off five gang members who mistakenly invaded his home.
The Truth:
The Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden was not the victim of a home invasion.
The eRumor was started by the fake news website Empire News. The article, which was published on December 15, 2014, claimed that Rob O’Neill fought off five members of the Crips street gang who mistakenly broke into his home to collect on a drug debt:
“Robert O’Neill, the former United States Navy SEAL who shot and killed Osama Bin Laden, had his home mistakenly invaded by members of a street gang this morning shortly after 1AM. O’Neill was uninjured, the five intruders all suffered injuries and remain hospitalized, but are expected to make a full recovery. Their names were not released in anticipation of the oncoming media storm.
“Butte Police Commissioner Bartholomew S. Harrington told members of the Associated Press in a brief press conference that the five men, part of a local street gang connected with the infamous Crips, were seeking to collect on a drug debt and invaded the wrong house, with the intended target just so happening to be the next door neighbor of O’Neill’s.”
Empire News regularly presents satirical articles in a way that dupes readers into believing they are factual, according to the website’s disclaimer.
O’Neill came forward in November of 2014 as the gunman who killed Osama bin Laden during a raid on his compound in Pakistan in May of 2011. Another member of SEAL Team Six has also claimed to be the gunman who fired the fatal bullet, the New York Daily News reports.