New York Goes Wild

Throngs converged on Ground Zero and Times Square today to cry, sing, and cheer the news of Osama bin Laden's death, flashed on a digital ticker tape at 42nd Street. Mayor Michael Bloomberg hailed the killing of the terror mastermind as a "critically important victory" for America, and one that will "bring some closure and comfort" to those who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attack that hit his city so hard. Passing firetrucks blasted horns, eliciting cheers from crowds of New Yorkers.

"Ain't that fantastic? I'm so happy," Jimmy Boyle, the dad of a firefighter who died on 9/11, told New York Daily News columnist Mike Daly when the writer called him with the news. But not everyone was completely elated, feeling instead a tearing anguish of relief, glee, and sadness knowing that nothing would bring back loved ones. "I'm bawling my eyes out," the brother of another dead hero firefighter told Daly. "I don't know how to feel. I don't feel great he's dead or anything—unless I killed him. Then I'd feel pretty good about it." (More President Obama stories.)