- Kari Hoffmann, 45, and her son Landen, five, were meeting preschool friends in April 2019
- A strange man grabbed Landen under the arms and threw him off the nearest balcony
- Miraculously, Landen survived but required urgent medical treatment for his life-threatening injuries
Here, Kari Hoffman tells her story in her own words
Unbuckling my little boy, Landen, then five, from his car seat, we walked towards the shopping centre hand-in-hand.
It was April 2019 and we were meeting my friend Betsy and her son, Will, five, for a day at the shops to celebrate the boys finishing preschool.
Arriving at 9.45am, before the stores opened, we stopped at the Rainforest Cafe on the third floor.
It was also closed, but as Betsy and I chatted, the kids played nearby on a crocodile statue outside the cafe.
Suddenly, a man, who I assumed was staff, approached the boys.
He whispered something to them, causing the boys to erupt in a fit of giggles.
‘Do you not want us here?’ I asked the man, thinking he’d asked us to move on as he prepared to open for the day.
‘Somebody help my baby!’
‘No, you can be here,’ he smiled.
But instead of heading inside, he lunged towards Landen, snatching him under the arms.
There was no time to react as the man bolted towards the nearest railing about three metres away.
Then, without warning, he tossed my boy over the ledge like a football. It happened so fast Landen didn’t even scream.
‘No!’ I cried out, as my poor boy plunged like a ragdoll towards the ground floor 12 metres below.
Time seemed to stand still as I raced down two escalators, heart pounding out of my chest.
The impact of his body hitting the concrete below was deafening as it echoed throughout the empty centre. I wasn’t quick enough to save him. But I trusted God was.
‘Somebody help my baby!’ I screamed, desperate as I ran toward Landen’s motionless body.
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I wasn’t sure if my son was dead or alive as he lay face down.
Scooping him into my arms I was horrified to see a large gash in his forehead. Blood gushed from a wound on his right leg, caused by his broken femur that’d pierced the skin.
Hearing my cries, two women were beside me in seconds.
Explaining they worked as nurses at the local children’s hospital, they swept Landen from my arms, placing him on the floor as they began CPR.
Terrifyingly, Landen didn’t have a heartbeat.
As they took turns to bring my boy back, tears streamed down my face.
‘We’ve got a heartbeat.’
‘We’ve got a heartbeat,’ I heard one of the nurses say after a few minutes.
‘He took a breath,’ the other said soon after.
Relief flooded through me. By then, a frantic Betsy had called emergency services, while another shopper shielded terrified Will from the trauma.
‘White shirt, black Nikes!’ Betsy yelled as she spotted the man who threw Landen running for the exit on level 3.
‘I’m right here, Landen,’ I told my boy.
When paramedics arrived eight minutes later, they loaded Landen in the ambulance. I planned to follow in a police car.
‘I’m right behind you, Landen,’ I called as they began to close the doors.
Hearing my voice, his eyes flickered open briefly.
In that moment I knew he was going to survive.
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Racing to the children’s hospital 20 minutes away, I phoned my husband, Dave, then 39, but he didn’t answer. Next I tried my mum, Kathy, 68.
‘Get to the children’s hospital. Landen was thrown over the balcony!’ I cried.
When we arrived, a team of surgeons were waiting to rush Landen into surgery, after placing him in an induced coma.
Scans revealed he’d suffered a lacerated spleen, shattered nose, cheeks, jaw, fingers, hands, wrists, arms, elbows and shoulders, and a broken pelvis.
Worse, he’d suffered severe head trauma, resulting in the left frontal lobe of his brain dying. But doctors were confident Landen could survive without it.
As surgeons worked for 12 hours to piece his body back together, I was joined by Dave, Mum, my dad, Steve, 68, and brother, Matt, 35.
‘He’ll pull through,’ they assured me.
‘It’s a miracle he survived.’
‘It’s a miracle he survived,’ surgeons said after the mammoth effort to save Landen.
The next day, Landen’s attacker, Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda, then 24, was charged with attempted murder.
He’d fled, but was arrested soon after by officers at the shopping centre’s metro and bus transit station.
I was relieved he couldn’t hurt anyone else.
While I stayed by Landen’s bedside, Dave bounced between the hospital and caring for our twins, Haden and Haley, then seven, at home.
They had been at school at the time of the accident.
After 13 days, Landen was brought out of his coma. My heart leapt from my chest as his ocean blue eyes met mine.
A breathing tube meant Landen couldn’t speak so he communicated by giving us a thumbs up or down.
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With no memory of the attack, he didn’t understand why he was in hospital.
‘You fell over the balcony and broke all your bones,’ I gently explained, not wanting to scare him.
‘Once the doctors fix all the broken parts you can come home,’ I soothed.
And when doctors finally removed Landen’s breathing tube, I prayed he would find his voice.
‘Bath, iPad,’ he whispered, longing for the comfort of his bedtime routine.
The weeks and months blurred as Landen’s injuries slowly healed.
But doctors struggled to clear the fluid in his lungs.
Finally, a CAT scan revealed the cause.
‘The main vein in his heart detached during the fall. It’s hanging on by a thread,’ a doctor said.
To save his life, in surgery, doctors fitted him with a permanent heart valve.
Reunited four hours later, I was relieved it was found in time. Doctors believe if it had been left untreated, my poor boy wouldn’t have survived.
Haden and Haley visited each afternoon, bringing along books and Landen’s favourite Goofy toy.
A month later in August our boy was transferred to a rehab centre where he underwent daily physio.
Tears flooded down my cheeks as Landen took his first shaky steps soon after. Thankfully his brain injury didn’t impact his speech or movement.
When he was discharged after four months in hospital, we threw a party, inviting every doctor, nurse and first responder who’d helped save our boy’s life.
With Landen’s story all over the news, once home, I sat Landen down and explained the truth.
‘A stranger threw you over the balcony,’ I said, explaining he’d be jailed and never hurt anyone again.
‘I feel sorry for the man,’ my sweet Landen replied, suggesting we take him a fruit basket.
Watching as Landen walked into his first day of school one month later in September was bittersweet.
I couldn’t believe how far he’d come.
In May 2019, Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda, then 24, pleaded guilty to attempted premeditated first-degree murder.
After his arrest, he’d told investigators he had made several attempts to talk to women at the shops, but their rejection ‘caused him to lash out and be aggressive’. He’d intended to kill an adult before choosing Landen.
Aranda also had two past convictions for assaults at the same centre, and had been banned from the property at one point.
Ahead of his sentencing at Hennepin County District Court, US, that June, Dave and I prepared victim impact statements to be read on our behalf.
You chose evil over good and chose to take your hate and hurt out on my precious boy. That is where your impact on us stops – you will take nothing more from us, Dave wrote.
Something really bad must have happened to you for you to want to do this to a sweet, innocent little boy, I penned in mine.
Aranda was sentenced to 19 years behind bars.
Seven years on, Landen, now 12, knows how lucky he is to be alive.
As a result of his brain injury, Landen struggles to make calculated decisions and acts spontaneously, but his heart is pure gold.
Lighting up every room he walks into, Landen is full of life, loves to fish and play ice hockey.
While he may need surgery in the future to replace the stent in his heart, he no longer requires therapy or treatment.
The twins, now 14, adore their little brother.
When they’re not joining him fishing down at the lake, we’re settling in for a family movie night or splash in the hot tub at home.
Every day with my family is a blessing.
Kari’s book ‘Miracle at the Mall’ is available on Amazon.
