TERROR IN THE HEARTLAND: BOY, 5, HURLED OFF MALL OF AMERICA BALCONY, PREDATOR STALKED MALL

In Minnesota, the Mall of America is not just a place to shop; being the largest mall in the Western Hemisphere, it is also a tourist attraction.

Located on the spot where the NFL Vikings and Major League Baseball Twins play in Metropolitan Stadium, in the mall's amusement park, a seat from Metropolitan Stadium marks the exact spot Harmon Killebrew's 520th MLB home run landed.

Spanning four floors, locals come to shop, while tourists come to gawk at the sheer size of the mall. 

On a chilly April morning, with snow still on the ground, Kari Hoffmann, her 5-year-old son Landen, a friend, and her son Will arrive at the mall early, before all the stores open. Standing outside the Rain Forest Cafe, third floor, the boys play on a fake rock when a man Kari thinks is an employee walks up to the boys.

Asking if it was ok for the boys to be on the rock, the man tells the moms, very nicely, it's ok, "you can be here." The man then leans down and whispers something in Will's ear.

Later, details uncover that he says, "If you don't get off this rock, I'm going to throw you off.  

As the boys nervously giggle, the man reaches around Will, grabs Landen, and throws the 5-year-old over the third-floor railing. Frozen for a moment, Kari Hoffmann screams as her boy is falling more than three stories to the ground; the shaken mother runs down the escalator to her broken little boy, telling onlookers to pray as she runs. 

Falling 40 feet to the ground, Landen Hoffmann breaks his skull, facial bones, both arms, and a leg, as well as suffers a life-threatening injury to his vena cavae vein running to his heart. Two nurses who work in a cardiac unit happen to be near when this horrific event happens and perform CPR on Landen.

He is taken to the Minneapolis Children's Hospital, where he is immediately rushed into lifesaving surgery, and from there he is placed in the intensive care unit, doctors unsure if he will survive the trauma.  

While stunned onlookers are encouraged by Kari Hoffmann to pray for her son, back up on the third floor, a 68-year-old man tackles the suspect as he runs away, slowing the man down enough so even though he jumped on the railway, cops are able to arrest the man. 

This terror is caused by 24-year-old Emmanuel Aranda, a man known to the mall with a history of arrests for trespassing, cited for throwing items at mall patrons from the top floor of the mall.

Weeks later, he returns to the mall, this time harassing two women and throwing things in a mall restaurant.  

Joining Nancy Grace today:

• Kari Hoffmann - Landen's Mother, Author of "Miracle at The Mall"
• Dr. Thomas Coyne - Chief Medical Examiner, District 2 Medical Examiner's Office, State of Florida; Forensic Pathologist, Neuropathologist, Toxicologist; X: @DrTMCoyne
• Dave Mack - 'Crime Stories' Investigative Reporter

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.