Teen Misses Bus, Gets Shot At By Homeowner After Asking For Directions

A Michigan teen, who had missed his bus in the morning, went looking for help only to be confronted by a man with a firearm.

Brennan Walker, 14, woke up late Thursday morning and decided to walk the bus route to Rochester High School. While traveling, he got lost and stopped at a residence in Rochester Hills to ask for directions. After he knocked on the front door, a man with a shotgun emerged, according to the Oakland County Sheriff's Office. That’s when Walker began running.

"I got to the house, and I knocked on the lady's door," he told Fox 2 Detroit. "Then she started yelling at me and she was like, 'Why are you trying to break into my house?' I was trying to explain to her that I was trying to get directions to Rochester High. And she kept yelling at me. Then the guy came downstairs, and he grabbed the gun, I saw it and started to run. And that's when I heard the gunshot."

The man's gun had the safety lock engaged but he was still able to fire a shot, which missed Walker, according to reports. The teen said he kept running and eventually hid, then cried.

"That's just completely unacceptable on every level. I don't know how you would justify it, but it certainly doesn't pass the muster," Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.

Oakland County Sheriff Deputies were called to the home of the gun-wielding suspect and took the man into custody. That man, identified as Jeffrey Zeigler, is being held at the Oakland County Jail and is scheduled for arraignment on Friday. Security cameras caught what happened but authorities have not yet released the footage, according to WJBK.

"My mom says that black boys get shot because sometimes they don't look their age, and I don't look my age. I'm 14; but I don't look 14," Walker told the news outlet. "I'm kind of happy that, like, I didn't become a statistic."