Ex-SEAL who claims he killed Osama bin Laden sues hotel after arrest, says alleged fight with guard never happened
The former Navy SEAL credited with firing the bullet that killed al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is going after the Texas hotel where he allegedly attacked a security guard last summer, claiming in a federal lawsuit the incident never happened.
Rob O’Neill was accused on Aug. 23, 2023, of using the N-word while tangling with Johnny Lee Loomis, a white security guard who was working that day at the Omni Hotel in Frisco, Texas.
It was alleged O’Neill was intoxicated at the time of the alleged assault. He was hit with misdemeanor charges of assault and public intoxication. The Collin County District Attorney’s office has not said publicly whether it plans to pursue the charges, The Dallas Morning News reported, stating that the office did not respond to a query about the case on Friday.
Since the allegations went public, O’Neill is no longer securing as many speaking engagements, he claimed in the lawsuit, filed on Aug. 14 in US District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Dallas.
The suit claims O’Neill “suffered compensable injury, including, but not limited to, injury to Plaintiffs’ reputation, physical pain and mental anguish, loss of companionship and society, lost business, opportunity, loss of speaking engagements, personal physical injury and sickness, and emotional distress, among other things to be proven at trial.” The suit seeks unspecified punitive damages exceeding $75,000.
Speaking to Fox News, O’Neill said he’s lost “a ton of business,” adding “there was a point in my career where I was giving 300 speeches in one year, between 250 and 300 speeches and that many cities in a year, and now it’s just dried up, because it’s a bad look that didn’t happen.”
In the suit, O’Neill claimed the hotel “knowingly, recklessly, and negligently hired and retained Loomis as a security guard despite his known history of violence and of making false accusations of violence and misconduct against hotel guests.”
O’Neill told Fox News he did have a drink that night, following a long day that including a speaking appearance.
He acknowledged he fell asleep at the hotel bar, and encountered Loomis on the way back to his room.
He said he never touched Loomis, and denied using the racial slur.
O’Neill told the outlet he was confused by Loomis’ allegations.
“It wasn’t until later that I found out that not only had I been accused of assault, I’d been accused of using a racial slur,” he said to Fox News. “And that, to me, was odd, too, along with the one guy escorting me up to him being a middle-aged white guy, like a dude in his 60s and all of a sudden he’s claiming assault and claiming a racial slur, which with two guys alone in a hallway is just to me, silly.”
