Sibling love is one of the strongest and purest forms of love, and this story exemplifies that. Owen Burns, a 13-year-old boy from Alpena Township, Michigan, was about to start playing his favorite game “Call of Duty: Black Ops II” on his PlayStation 3 when he heard his younger sister screaming. The screams were coming from the yard, where she was having fun. Owen rushed towards the window, concerned that she was in danger, and that’s when his little heart froze.
Someone was dragging the eight-year-old girl towards the woods that surrounded the family’s home.Owen grabbed the slingshot his mother had purchased for him for $3 and reached for the nearest ammunition he could find, a marble and a rock. He knew he could hit the kidnapper because he had practiced using the slingshot on used orange cans.
Owen, believe it or not, was able to hit the kidnapper twice, once between the eyes and once on the chest. “He was cursing. “He was swearing,” Owen told the Washington Post. The abductor fled, leaving the girl alone. She was traumatized by the incident, but she was safe and sound, thanks to her brave and quick-thinking brother.
When the siblings returned home, they called their mother, who was helping a relative at the time of the incident. She rushed home and called the police as soon as she learned what had happened. The alleged kidnapper was apprehended by Michigan State Police. They did not reveal his name, but said he was a 17-year-old who would be charged as an adult.”
He truly is the one who, 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.” According to Grimshaw, the kidnapper “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.”
Maggie Burns, Owen’s mother, didn’t believe her son’s story about hitting the kidnapper between the eyes and on the chest, but police confirmed it.
“[The suspect] 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 statement.”You said I always lie!” Owen told his mother.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” she said, her voice shaking. “It didn’t seem real until there was proof.” It sounds like something out of a Hollywood film.” “Stuff in movies can and does happen in real life,” the teenager explained. It’s easy to call Owen a true hero. The entire community applauded his efforts to protect his younger sister. Congratulations, young man.