An 8-year-old Missouri boy is being praised for his quick thinking after the traumatizing experience of seeing his mother killed before his eyes.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Porsha Owens, 28, was walking her three children to their car to drop them off at day care when a man attempted to carjack the mom, fatally shooting her in front of her eldest son.

Owens’ grandmother, Fannie King, said her great-grandson told her exactly what happened, saying the gunman demanded that his mother hand over all of her money and the keys to the car before shooting her anyway.

The second-grader then hid his 5-year-old sister and 3-year-old brother, keeping them below the gunman’s eye-line on the passenger side of the vehicle. When the gunman couldn’t get the car to start, he fled on foot. The child then instructed his siblings to stay low while he ran for help. After finding a local policeman, the hero brought him back to the family’s home and waited by his mother’s side until an ambulance arrived.

KMOV reports Owens was found with at least one gunshot wound and was transported to a local hospital, where she later died from her injuries.

“I talked to the children,” King said. “The two smaller ones, they don’t comprehend she’s not coming back. The older one, he knows.”

A GoFundMe account has been established to help the Owens children. You can donate here.