It was an ordinary afternoon after school when Owen Burns heard his sister screaming. Annoyed by the interruption, he initially thought nothing serious of her cries for help.
But when he looked out his window, he was shocked—yet recovered quickly enough to make a life-saving decision.
Owen Burns was settling in to play his favorite game, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, on his PlayStation 3 when he heard his sister screaming from their yard. The 13-year-old assumed she was just fooling around and felt irritated.
Moments later, he looked out his bedroom window and saw a stranger trying to drag his 8-year-old sister toward the woods bordering their home.
Panicked, the teenager grabbed his slingshot and whatever ammunition he could find—a marble and a rock. He aimed directly at the kidnapper and struck him squarely between the eyes.
The second shot hit him in the chest. “He was swearing. He was cussing,” Owen later told the press.
The incident took place at the Burns family home in Alpena Township, Michigan, in broad daylight. Their mother, Maggie Burns, said kidnappings were unheard of in the area.
In the end, his 8-year-old sister was safe, though likely shaken by the ordeal. The kidnapper was a 17-year-old whom Michigan State Police did not publicly identify but confirmed would be charged as an adult.
“He really is the one that… I believe saved his sister’s life or prevented something seriously bad from happening to her,” Lt. John Grimshaw said at a news conference, calling Owen’s actions “extraordinary.” The young boy’s actions were nothing short of heroic.
He added that the teenager should be commended for his efforts.
The slingshot Owen used was nothing special—his mother had bought it on clearance for $3. He would often practice in the yard, aiming at old orange juice cans, which clearly sharpened his accuracy.
Owen said that when he first saw the kidnapper trying to abduct his sister, one thought immediately crossed his mind: if the man succeeded, he might either harm or kill her.
Grimshaw described the incident, saying the suspect “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.”
That’s when Owen grabbed his slingshot and fired. When his sister broke free, she ran inside crying and told her brother she had almost been killed. An enraged Owen ran outside, shouting at the kidnapper. He threw a baseball at him, but it missed. He then tried to use the slingshot again, but the rubber snapped, making his third attempt unsuccessful.
The siblings then called their mother, who had stopped at a relative’s house while on her way home from work. Hearing her children upset and barely coherent, she caught the word “kidnapper” and rushed home before calling the police.
“I was in shock for a few days,” Maggie said.
The 17-year-old suspect was later found hiding at a nearby gas station. He was charged with attempted kidnapping, attempted felony assault, and misdemeanor assault and battery in Alpena County District Court.
“He had obvious signs of injury consistent with being struck by a slingshot in the head and chest,” police said in a press release.
Maggie admitted she initially doubted her son’s story about hitting the kidnapper from about 200 feet away, striking his forehead and chest. But police later confirmed it, noting that during questioning, the goose egg on the suspect’s forehead—caused by the marble—continued to swell.
“You said I always lie!” Owen told his mother.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” she replied. “It didn’t sound real until there was proof. It sounds like something you’d see in the movies.”
“Mom,” the teenager said, “things in the movies can and do happen in real life.” Clearly, this young man is a hero.
