It was an ordinary afternoon after school when Owen Burns heard his sister screaming. Annoyed by the noise, he didn’t initially think anything serious was happening.
But when he looked out his window, he was shocked—and quickly made a life-saving decision.
Owen Burns had just settled in to play his favorite game, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, on his PlayStation 3 when he heard his sister screaming from the yard. The 13-year-old assumed she was just messing around and felt irritated.
Moments later, the teen looked out his bedroom window and saw a stranger trying to drag his 8-year-old sister toward the woods near their home.
Panicking, he grabbed his slingshot and whatever ammunition he could find—a marble and a rock. He aimed directly at the kidnapper and hit him squarely between the eyes.
On the second shot, he hit him in the chest. “He was swearing. He was cussing,” Owen told the press.
The incident happened at the Burns family home in Alpena Township, Michigan, in broad daylight. Their mother, Maggie Burns, said kidnappings were unheard of in the area.
By the end of the encounter, his 8-year-old sister was safe, though likely shaken by the ordeal. The suspect was a 17-year-old whom Michigan State Police did not 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 very serious from happening to her,” Lt. John Grimshaw said at a news conference, calling Owen’s actions “extraordinary.” The boy’s actions were nothing short of heroic.
He added that the teen should be commended for his efforts.
The slingshot Owen used was nothing special—his mother had bought it on clearance for $3. He would occasionally practice in the yard, aiming at old orange juice cans, which apparently helped perfect his aim.
The teenager said that when he first saw the kidnapper trying to take his sister, one thought crossed his mind: if the man succeeded, he might either kill her or do something terrible.
Grimshaw described the attack, saying the kidnapper “came from behind her, grabbed her like you see in the movies—hand over the mouth, arm around the waist—and tried to pull her into the woods.”
That’s when Owen grabbed his slingshot and fired. When his sister broke free from the attacker’s grip, she ran inside crying, telling her brother she had almost been killed. Furious, Owen ran outside, shouting at the kidnapper. He threw a baseball at him but missed, then tried to fire his slingshot again, but the rubber snapped, making his third attempt useless.
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 frantic on the phone, she caught the word “kidnapper” and rushed home to call 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 suspect from about 200 feet away, right in the forehead and chest. But police confirmed it, noting that during questioning, a lump on the suspect’s forehead from the marble kept swelling.
“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 out of a movie.”
“Mom,” the teenager said, “things in movies can happen in real life.” Clearly, this young boy is a hero.
