Landen is fighting for his life in a Minneapolis hospital with head trauma and multiple broken bones after the nearly 40-foot fall.
Man who ‘threw five-year-old boy off a balcony at Mall of America’ tells police he went there intending to kill as revenge for years of being rejected by women at the shopping center.
Daily Mail, 15 April 2019:
Emmanuel Aranda, 24, was charged with attempted premeditated first-degree murder on Monday after he allegedly threw a five-year-old boy off a third-floor balcony at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, on Friday.
He said that he was angry after years of trying and failing to pick up women there.
He is accused of throwing five-year-old Landen Hoffmann off a balcony at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, on Friday.
Arabda, who is accused of throwing the five-year-old boy off a third-floor balcony at the Mall of America allegedly told police he went there looking for someone to kill as revenge for being rejected by women at the Minnesota shopping center for several years.
Aranda has been charged with attempted premeditated first-degree murder for Friday’s attack, according to Bloomington police.
He is expected to appear in court on Tuesday, where prosecutors will seek bail of $2million.
Meanwhile, little Landen Hoffmann is fighting for his life in a Minneapolis hospital with head trauma and multiple broken bones from the nearly 40-foot fall.
A criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County on Monday says Landen and his mother were standing outside a restaurant when Aranda came close to them, picked up the child and tossed him over the balcony.
Aranda allegedly told police he went to the mall looking for someone to kill.
The complaint says Aranda told police he had been coming to the mall for several years seeking to talk to women, but had been rejected and it caused him to lash out.
A bystander who police say witnessed Aranda push the child chased him down before the suspect shoved him against a wall.
Aranda kept running until police were able to capture him on the light-rail train outside the mall.
When he was being arrested, the suspect reportedly remained calm and did not question why police had stopped him.
Aranda allegedly told police that he knew what he was planning to do was wrong.
He said he came up with the idea to kill someone one day earlier and was planning to target an adult because ‘they usually stand near the balcony’, the complaint said.
The suspect’s uncle, Francis Aranda, told KSTP that his nephew had displayed violent tendencies since childhood.
‘He has a serious mental problem, he was diagnosed as a child,’ the relative said.
He added: ‘We are going to pray for that baby [Landen] because what happened is so unfortunate, but it’s going to bring light to mental illness, I hope he [Aranda] doesn’t go to jail, he needs help.’
Bloomington Police confirmed Aranda had been banned from the mall twice before, but the most recent ban had since expired. Aranda allegedly told police that he knew what he was planning to do was wrong, saying that he came up with the idea to kill someone one day earlier and that he intended to target an adult because ‘they usually stand near the balcony’, the criminal complaint said.
Posted by Landen Hoffmann update on Wed, 26 Jun 2019 17:43 | #