Family of Boy Thrown Off Mall of America Balcony Thanks Jesus After Latest Development
In times of grave tragedy, God can be the only way through. One Minnesota family is living testament to that.
The parents of Landen Hoffman say that Jesus “saved our son’s life and is healing him in the most miraculous ways” after the 5-year-old boy was thrown from a balcony at the Mall of America a little over two weeks ago, according to Fox News.
That message came as part of a statement Friday in which the family announced the boy was “alert and conscious” and no longer in critical condition as a result of the unprovoked attack.
“We are now turning our focus to additional surgeries, healing, rehabilitation and eventually a return home, which we hope will happen by June,” the statement said.
Miracle recovery: The family of 5-year-old Landen Hoffman, the boy thrown off a balcony at the Mall of America, said Friday that he is out of critical condition and is “alert and responsive.” https://t.co/T4dZ4oZaHL
— News 8 – WROC-TV (@News_8) April 26, 2019
The family’s pastor also announced during an Easter Sunday service that the young boy had “zero evidence of brain damage,” the New York Post reported.
According to KARE-TV, Pastor Mac Hammond said the results came after a five-hour MRI that showed injuries more in line with if the child “fell off a bicycle instead of off the third floor of the mall.” The pastor said that the results were “truly a miracle.”
The family’s lawyer wouldn’t confirm that, however, citing privacy concerns.
The tragic incident began on the third floor of the mega-mall just after 10 a.m. on April 12. According to another Post article, the criminal complaint stated suspect Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda had stood “very close to” Landen and his mom. This prompted the mother to ask “if they were in the way and should move.”
That’s when Aranda allegedly “picked up the victim and threw him” 39 feet down to the ground floor, the article stated.
Prosecutors say that the attack resulted in life-threatening injuries, including multiple fractures, serious head trauma and bleeding.
The Post reported Aranda admitted to the crime and told police he was “looking for someone to kill” and had originally “planned to kill an adult, because they usually stand near the balcony.”
The suspect “acknowledged repeatedly in his interview that he had planned and intended to kill someone at the mall that day and that he was aware that what he was doing was wrong,” the complaint read, according to the Post.
Aranda was arrested at a light-rail stop waiting for a train after escaping mall patrons who tried to stop him. The suspect had previously been banned from the mall after police arrested him three times in 2015; those arrests included throwing an object from the third-floor balcony — the same floor from which Landen was thrown.
He also has a warrant out for assault in Illinois. He now stands charged with attempted premeditated first-degree murder.
“This crime has shocked the community,” a statement from Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman read. “That a child, with his mother, at a safe public area like a mall, could be violently attacked for no reason is chilling for everyone.”
This sort of crime is the apotheosis of evil; normal people can barely conceive of the kind of twisted hatred that would cause a human being to kill someone randomly and then decide, because an adult was apparently unavailable, that a child would do.
And yet, even in this moment of profound darkness, Hoffman’s parents acknowledge that God “saved our son’s life and is healing him in the most miraculous ways.”
Not only that, but a GoFundMe page has raised over $1 million toward the 5-year-old’s medical care.
“The road to recovery remains long, but with God and you, we are assured to make it through,” the family’s statement reads. “Please keep praying for our son and may our loving God bless you and everyone you love.”
And, indeed, one can only pray that God is with both Landen and his family in this moment of anguish. He’s already brought them this far, and our hopes remain that He restores Landen to full health and ensures that his assailant is punished.
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