While Owen Burns was returning home from school on a typical afternoon, he overheard his sister screaming.
He was irritated by the disruption her screams caused and could not perceive anything nefarious in her cries for assistance.
However, when he turned to gaze out his window, he was startled, but he immediately overcame it to make a decision that would save his life.
On his PlayStation 3, while Owen Burns was getting ready to play his favorite game, “Call of Duty: Black Ops II,” he heard his sister screaming in the backyard. The 13-year-old grew irritated because she thought she was being silly.
Later, when Owen Burns was in his bedroom, he noticed a stranger attempting to drag his sister, who was eight years old, to the woods bordering their house. The terrified teenager seized his slingshot and gathered any nearby objects he could use as ammo, including a marble and a rock. He shot the ᴋɪᴅɴᴀᴘᴘᴇʀ right between the eyes with a direct shot.
The second time, he hit him in the chest.
“He was swearing. He was cussing,” Owen told the press.
The meeting happened in broad daylight at the Burns’ house in Michigan’s Alpena Township. According to their mother Maggie Burns, ᴋɪᴅɴᴀᴘᴘɪɴɢs are quite uncommon in the neighborhood.
His 8-year-old sister was unharmed at the end of the encounter, though she was certainly scared. Though the Michigan State Police did not release the identity of the 17-year-old ᴋɪᴅɴᴀᴘᴘᴇʀ, they did confirm that he will face adult charges.
“He really is the one that … I believe saved his sister’s either life or from something seriously bad happening to her,” Lt. John Grimshaw said at a news conference, calling Owen’s actions “extraordinary.” This young boy’s actions were nothing short of heroic!
The young man should be commended for his efforts, he continued.
The adolescent used a standard slingshot, nothing unusual about it. It cost his mum $3 because it was on sale. The adolescent would occasionally go outside to his yard and practice shooting at old orange juice cans, which he claimed helped him improve his aim.
According to the boy, when he initially observed a ᴋɪᴅɴᴀᴘᴘᴇʀ trying to kidnap his sister, he had only one thought in mind: if the stranger was successful in his attempt, he would probably either kill his sister or use her as a s3x slave.
The ᴋɪᴅɴᴀᴘᴘᴇʀ “came from behind her, grabbed her like you see in the movies — hand over the mouth, arm around the waist — and was attempting to pull her into the woods.”
At that time, Owen pulled out his slingshot and started shooting at him.
When the ᴋɪᴅɴᴀᴘᴘᴇʀ let go of his sister, she raced into the house sobbing and told her brother that she had almost been killed.
Owen was furious and stormed outside, cursing the ᴋɪᴅɴᴀᴘᴘᴇʀ. He threw a baseball his way, but it missed. The rubber on his slingshot then cracked, rendering his third effort ineffective. He then tried to strike him with it again.
Owen and his sister then called their mother, who had stopped to help out at a relative’s house while she was traveling from work. She raced home to contact the police after overhearing her agitated and unintelligible kids on the phone. She could make out the term “ᴋɪᴅɴᴀᴘᴘᴇʀ.”
“I was in shock for a few days,” Maggie said.
The ᴋɪᴅɴᴀᴘᴘᴇʀ, 17, was discovered hiding at a nearby gas station. He was later indicted in Alpena County District Court on charges of attempted ᴋɪᴅɴᴀᴘᴘɪɴɢ, attempted criminal assault, and misdemeanor assault and battery.
“He had obvious signs of an injury consistent with those that would have been sustained from the slingshot strikes to his head and chest,” police said in a press release.
Maggie expressed skepticism about his son’s claim that he hit the ᴋɪᴅɴᴀᴘᴘᴇʀ exactly in the face and chest from 200 feet away. However, the police corroborated the information, stating that the suspect’s marble-induced goose egg on his forehead continued to enlarge as they spoke with him.
“You said I always lie!” Owen said to his mother.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” she replied. “It just didn’t sound real, until there was proof. It sounds like something you would see in the movies.”
“Mom,” the teenager said, “stuff in the movies can and do happen in real life.” Clearly this young man is a hero!
