The bad memory: a psychopath picked up a boy at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, and threw him over a three-story balcony. The boy, Landen Hoffman, then five years old, fell 40 feet and suffered broken bones, severe head trauma, and internal injuries.

It was and remains a horrible story—but there’s some good news. Now 11 years old, Hoffman has worked hard and has been helped in his recovery by hero doctors and his supportive family, and he’s doing well. 

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.’ 

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. 

🚨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.