O’Neil

The former US Navy SEAL who says he fired the shots that killed Osama bin Laden was arrested Friday on a drunken driving charge after police found him asleep in a car parked at a convenience store in his Montana hometown.

Customers at the store called police to report a sleeping man behind the wheel of the running car around 2.30am, Butte-Silver Bow County Undersheriff George Skuletich said.

An officer woke the man up, identified him as Robert O’Neill and noticed odd behaviour.

O’Neill denied drinking and gave different stories about where he had been, Skuletich said.

O’Neill failed a field sobriety test and refused a test to determine his blood alcohol level.

At that point, he was charged with driving under the influence, a misdemeanour, Skuletich said.

Jail records show O’Neill was released after posting a US$685 bond.

It is his first arrest. A phone number listed for O’Neill was disconnected.

It’s not clear whether he had hired an attorney.

O’Neill began publicly discussing his role in the 2011 bin Laden raid two years ago.

He told The Associated Press in a 2014 interview that the American public had a right to know more details about the killing of the al-Qaida leader.

Pentagon officials previously said it is not clear whose shots killed bin Laden.