The 5-year-old boy hurled off a Mall of America balcony by a stranger in April is now “walking perfectly” and even back at school, his family says.
Landen Hoffman fell nearly 40 feet from the balcony of the Minnesota mall — breaking his skull, face bones, both arms and a leg — when Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda, 24, randomly picked him up and tossed him over the side. Aranda told cops he was angry at being rejected by women and just “looking for someone to kill.”
Little Landen “tells people all the time when they get hurt, don’t worry, I fell off a cliff, but Angels caught me and Jesus loves me, so I’m ok and you will be too!” according to a posting on a GoFundMe page for the Woodbury, Minn., boy last week.
The update is titled “Landen’s Family wants you to know how well Landen is doing since coming home in August.”
It notes that the child “came home with a limp and uneven legs from a two-time broken femur [and] an open wound on his belly.”
Both his legs are now even, says the page — which has raised more than $1 million for the family — “and [Landen’s stomach] wound has finally scabbed over and new skin is growing.
“He loves being back to school and goes to kindergarten. … He gets out of the car every morning happy and blows kisses all the way in!” the posting said. “When his mommy asks him if she can look at his wound or asks how he’s doing, he always responds with “Mom, I’m healed you don’t need me anymore.”
Aranda was sentenced to 19 years behind bars after pleading guilty to attempted murder in the case in May.