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Crowd at White House cheers Bin Laden death

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Crowds gathers outside the White House in Washington to celebrate after President Barack Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden Sunday, May 1, 2011. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

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Updated: May 2, 2011 4:43PM



WASHINGTON (AP) — A large crowd gathered in front of the White House to celebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden, with people chanting “U-S-A, U-S-A,” waving U.S. flags and singing the national anthem.

Will Ditto, 25, a legislative aide, said he was getting ready to go to bed Sunday night when his mom called him with the news. He decided to leave his home on Capitol Hill and join the crowd. As he rode the Metro subway system to the White House, he told fellow passengers the news.

“It’s huge,” he said. “It’s a great day to be an American.”

George Washington University student Alex Washofsky, 20, and his roommate Dan Fallon, 20, joined the crowd.

“George Bush said, ‘Bring him to justice, dead or alive,’ and we did it,” said Washofsky, a junior and a member of the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps.

The crowd began gathering before President Barack Obama addressed the nation at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday. By midnight, people had filled a street directly in front of the White House and the celebration was spilling over into Lafayette Park to the north.

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