Ariadne Colon's friend, whose brother died on 9/11, sent out the call: who wanted to head down to Ground Zero?
On the drive across to Manhattan from Queens, the questions in the car were all about whether this could actually be true.
“I didn't realise how I had been waiting for this news,” Colon told SBS. “I had accepted that Osama had already died or was living uncomfortably in a cave plugged up to a dialysis machine. I didn't realise how amazing I would feel knowing he was dead.”
There was a thin mist of rain on the air around Ground Zero. At first, only a few students from nearby New York University were standing around. They should have been studying for exams coming up soon but Bin Laden had been ever-present during half their lives.
Soon, the group had swelled to a few hundred more that cheered when firefighters joined the crowd.
“I didn't realise that people had giant flags lying around their houses – because suddenly there were all these giant flags being unrolled,” said Colon, with deadpan New York humour.
“There was this kid with an awesome t-shirt that said, “I am Muslim – Don't Panic”. He was so happy and was saying that he hoped people realised this was not a war against Islam, it was a war against Osama Bin Laden.”
One guy climbed up a lamppost and poured champagne onto the street but the mood was not celebratory -- more that this was a moment in history.
Colon attended six funerals after the 2001 attacks. She was a little surprised by her own reaction to the news and her desire to head Downtown.
“But if you lived here and were part all of that [on 9/11] then you tucked it in your back pocket,” she said.
“Then suddenly something like this that comes out of the blue. You won't have anything that will bring people back – and it is not the end of the war or al-Qaeda – but you realise you were waiting for this moment -- even if it is symbolic.
“Just give us tonight. Just give us this. Bin Laden had blood on his hands and he is no longer breathing. That is good enough for me tonight.”
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