An unfortunate incident occurred at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota when a psychopath threw a young boy named Landen Hoffman over a three-story balcony. The five-year-old boy fell 40 feet, resulting in broken bones, severe head trauma, and internal injuries.
Despite the tragic event, there is now a glimmer of hope. Fast forward to today, 11-year-old Landen Hoffman has persevered through his challenging recovery with the help of dedicated doctors and his loving family, showing remarkable progress.
His mom Kari Hoffman recalled that awful moment in a telephone interview and described what’s transpired since:
Kari ran down several escalators screaming for her son, who laid limp on the floor and she began praying to God.
‘So many miracles happened [since then],’ Kari said in a phone interview Friday with DailyMail.com. ‘It was a big, long journey.
‘It took time for him to be back to him… He had to learn who he was again.’
The road to Landen’s healing spanned a grueling three-year period, taking a toll on the entire family. Landen’s mother, Kari, witnessed her son’s personality shift from sweet and kind to angry and hostile, only to see him return to his former self in the end.
🚨Now aged 11, Landen is thriving and miles away from the boy in the hospital bed who was fighting for his life with several broken bones, severe head trauma, and a life-threatening injury to his vena cava vein, the one that runs to your heart, his mother Kari Hoffman told… pic.twitter.com/IfnFuQmLzR
— The Oregon Patriot (@joetheorpatriot) April 19, 2025
The tweet continues:
The then-five-year-old was thrown over the balcony by Emmanuel Aranda on April 12, 2019, when Landen and his mother went to the Mall of America in Minneapolis to meet up with another friend and his mom for the Crayola Experience happening there.
While waiting to get inside, Aranda approached the two boys and even spoke with Kari, before grabbing young Landen and launching him over the third-floor railing.
