Michigan boy who used slingshot to save sister says he ‘was just lucky’

May 18, 2023, 11:36 AM

ALPENA TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A 13-year-old Michigan boy who used a slingshot to save his 8-year-old sister from an attempted kidnapping said he was “freaking out” and simply reached for something that could stop the attack.

“So I grab my slingshot and open the window and I grab two things — a marble and a gravel rock or something,” Owen Burns told WWTV/WWUP-TV in Cadillac in northern Michigan.

Police said Owen struck the 17-year-old assailant in the head and chest, and his sister was able to get away.

“I was just lucky. He’s just a big target because he’s not like one Pepsi can,” Owen said.

The attempted kidnapping occurred on May 10 outside the family’s home in Alpena Township. Owen’s sister was outside looking for mushrooms.

“I say, ‘OK, be careful.’ … And then, boom, something happens,” he recalled.

Owen heard a scream while playing video games but figured his sister was just “messing around” with friends. A second scream alarmed him.

“So I looked out the window and saw her being abducted by a person and I’m like freaking out,” Owen said.

That’s when he grabbed his slingshot. Police caught the suspect and said he had visible wounds. The teen has been charged with attempted kidnapping and other crimes.

State police 1st Lt. John Grimshaw said Owen’s actions were “extraordinary.”

He said the boy saved his sister’s life or at least prevented “something seriously bad happening to her.”

Owen said he had to act.

“If I wasn’t out there and I didn’t hear her scream, then she was gone,” he said.

United States News

FILE - Florida Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer sentences Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz at the Browa...

Associated Press

Commission: Florida judge should be reprimanded for conduct during Parkland school shooting trial

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida judge who oversaw the penalty trial of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz should be publicly reprimanded for showing bias toward the prosecution, failing to curtail “vitriolic statements” directed at Cruz’s attorneys by the victims’ families and sometimes allowing “her emotions to overcome her judgement,” a state commission concluded […]

16 hours ago

FILE - A home burns as the Dixie fire jumps Highway 395 south of Janesville, Calif., Aug. 16, 2021....

Associated Press

California insurance market rattled by withdrawal of major companies

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two insurance industry giants have pulled back from California’s home insurance marketplace, saying that increasing wildfire risk and soaring construction costs have prompted them to stop writing new policies in the nation’s most populous state. State Farm announced last week it would stop accepting applications for all business and personal lines […]

16 hours ago

Associated Press

US judge yanks approval for Idaho mine after finding that federal agency violated environmental laws

A federal judge has yanked approval for a phosphate mining project in southeastern Idaho, saying federal land managers in the Trump administration didn’t in part properly consider the mine’s impact on sage grouse, a bird species that has seen an 80% decline in population since 1965. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill’s Friday decision came […]

16 hours ago

Sen. Fred Mills asks a question to members of The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Servi...

Associated Press

Louisiana Senate passes bill banning gender-affirming car for transgender youths

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A controversial bill — that at one point had been presumed dead — banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths in Louisiana was passed by the Senate on Monday and is likely to reach the governor’s desk in the coming days. The bill, which passed in the Senate mainly along […]

16 hours ago

Ted Henifin, the interim third-party manager appointed by the U.S. Department of Justice to help fi...

Associated Press

Mississippi’s capital only collects 56% of fees from its struggling water system

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi’s capital is collecting only a little more than half of the money it bills for water use, far below the rate at which most American cities obtain such fees, Jackson’s federally appointed water manager said Monday. Ted Henifin, appointed in November by a federal court to help improve Jackson’s troubled […]

16 hours ago

Associated Press

Chinese ex-official’s wife says alleged repatriation pressure turned her life in US ‘upside-down’

NEW YORK (AP) — A former Chinese official and his wife had left their homeland and kept their U.S. address private. Yet eight years later, two strangers were banging on their New Jersey front door and twisting the handle, the wife testified in a U.S. court Monday. When the men left and Liu Fang opened […]

16 hours ago

Sponsored Articles

...

DAY & NIGHT AIR CONDITIONING, HEATING AND PLUMBING

Here are the biggest tips to keep your AC bill low this summer

PHOENIX — In Arizona during the summer, having a working air conditioning unit is not just a pleasure, but a necessity. No one wants to walk from their sweltering car just to continue to be hot in their home. As the triple digits hit around the Valley and are here to stay, your AC bill […]

...

OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center

5 mental health myths you didn’t know were made up

Helping individuals understand mental health diagnoses like obsessive compulsive spectrum disorder or generalized anxiety disorder isn’t always an easy undertaking. After all, our society tends to spread misconceptions about mental health like wildfire. This is why being mindful about how we talk about mental health is so important. We can either perpetuate misinformation about already […]

(Desert Institute for Spine Care in Arizona Photo)...

Desert Institute for Spine Care in Arizona

5 common causes for chronic neck pain

Neck pain can debilitate one’s daily routine, yet 80% of people experience it in their lives and 20%-50% deal with it annually.

Michigan boy who used slingshot to save sister says he ‘was just lucky’