Smyrna Police Chief credits “the very brave young men” who took bin Laden down

Many residents of Smyrna and Vinings were greeted this morning with news that Osama bin Laden had been killed by Navy SEALs in a compound outside the capital of Pakistan. Reactions varied from jubilant celebration to trepidation.

Some Vinings residents reported seeing fireworks last night after President Barack Obama’s press conference made bin Laden’s death official.

Smyrna Police Chief Stanley E. Hook learned of bin Laden’s death at 5:30 a.m. when his alarm clock radio went off. Hook expressed relief over the news and credited “the very brave young men” who took bin Laden down in the Abbottabad-compound. However, he won’t rest easy just yet.

“I think that we become more conscious of what’s going on around us,” Hook said. “There’s always retaliatory possibilities, but I don’t think (Al Qaeda) is any different than if we hadn’t have gotten him. I think they’re just as mean and miserable as they are now. I expect that we’ll all be a little more cautious for a while.”

Hook noted that some people are skeptical that bin Laden was actually killed. However, he doesn’t agree.

“There are so many things going on. There are people who don’t believe it no matter what it is,” he said. “If they can’t see it, touch it or smell it they don’t believe it.”

There has also been a keen interest in the pistol ossibly used by the Navy SEALs to kill bin Laden, said Eric Wallace, co-owner of .

According to reports, the SEAL team used small arms and the Navy SEALS carry SIG Sauer P226 pistols for close combat.

Adventure Outdoors carries the SIG Sauer P226 and Wallace said the store began receiving phone calls about the pistol at 10 a.m. when it opened for the day. Wallace first checked to make sure that P226 was actually the weapon used by Navy SEALs.

“I called around 10:30 and talked to John Scott, the national sales manager at SIG and he confirmed that,” Wallace said.

Adventure Outdoors sold three of the pistols this morning and has ordered 30 more.