Mother shares amazing progress of son thrown from Mall of America balcony at age five

Six years ago, a shocking crime took place at the Mall of America in Minnesota. Landen Hoffman, who was just five years old at the time, was thrown 40 feet over a third-floor balcony by a stranger named Emmanuel Aranda. The incident left the young boy with multiple broken bones, severe head trauma, and a life-threatening injury to his vena cava vein.

Today, Landen is 11 years old and doing remarkably well. His mother, Kari Hoffman, shared with DailyMail.com that her son, who was once fighting for his life in a hospital bed, has made a remarkable recovery. He is now thriving and living a normal life, miles away from the traumatic event that changed his life forever.

The harrowing incident took place on April 12, 2019, as Landen and his mother were at the Mall of America in Minneapolis to meet a friend and his mom for an event called the Crayola Experience. What started as a normal day out turned into a nightmare that would leave both Landen and his family grappling with the aftermath for years to come.

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. 

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.’ 

That journey of getting Landen ‘back’ took around three years and was rough on the whole family. Kari watched her son’s personality change from sweet and kind to angry and mean to back again. 

Landen injured his frontal lobe, which plays a crucial role in personality and social behavior, among other various body parts. 

He underwent more than a dozen surgeries, temporarily took thyroid medication, and broke his leg for the second time during his rehabilitation – a moment Kari now claims was a miracle from God. 

As doctors and nurses were trying to get the young boy out of bed roughly four months into his healing journey, he broke his leg for the second time. 

Although the moment was devastating, they also discovered his vena cava vein was barely hanging on by a thread. 

If Landen had tried to keep walking on it, he could have died. 

Kari has relied heavily on her faith since the day of the attack and she believes God spoke to them in that moment, the same way she spoke to him when her son’s body crashed to the mall floor.

‘I cried out for God because I knew no person could save him, only God,’ she told DailyMail.com. ‘I did what I always do and pray.’ 

She said: ‘His leg broke a second time to tell us what it was.’ 

Despite the terrifying experience it was for Kari, Landen doesn’t remember the fall, only his time in the hospital, which his mother made sure was anything but negative. 

‘He says he wants to go back to the hospital,’ she told DailyMail.com. 

Kari has now written a book about their experiences entitled ‘Miracle at the Mall’ that was published last month.

The mother-son duo made a visit to the kind nurses who cared for little Landen all those years ago to give out books. 

Landen annotated copies of the book for some readers, including telling a Mr. Satoh that ‘God moves mountains’ and ‘thanks for everything,’ Kari’s Facebook page shows. 

Since the horrific attack, Kari has shared photos to her Facebook of Landen enjoying a sunny vacation, with the Washington Capitals hockey team and celebrating with his family. 

But there’s one place Kari has not been since the attack – the Mall of America. 

‘I don’t want to stand in that place again,’ Kari said. 

However, the family of five doesn’t look at the horrifying incident as a horrible event. 

‘Nobody looks at this as a bad thing that happened to us, it was evil. What happened was evil,’ the religious mother said. 

Landen even ‘loves’ telling his story, the mother-of-three said. 

The moment made Landen more reverent in his faith and he often tells people: ‘God saved me, God’s real.’ 

Aranda, who threw Landen over the balcony after a woman rejected his advances, is in jail serving a 19-year sentence. 

Kari avoided learning anything about the court proceedings or about the man who attacked her son while it was happening, but since things have settled, she has found time to dip her toes in. 

She aware Aranda is up for parole in seven years, but she said she doesn’t have a feeling either way about his release, as long as he doesn’t harm anyone else. 

‘It has been on my radar,’ she told DailyMail.com. ‘I don’t know anything about him.’  

Aranda, who had been banned from the mall in two other instances, told investigators he carried out the attack after ‘a woman rejected his advances’ and he was ‘looking for someone to kill’.

Kari says the attack has taught her to ‘pray first and to fight for your life’ and then leave your trust in God past that. 

And for now, she’s happy to have her son alive and healthy.

‘He’s back,’ she sighed in relief.