‘ANGELS CAUGHT ME’

5-Year-Old Boy Thrown Over Mall of America Balcony by Stranger Is Now Walking and Back in School

The boy now tells people when they get hurt that they'll be fine, noting that he once “fell off a cliff” and survived.

A 5-year-old boy left with life-threatening injuries after he was thrown from a balcony at the Mall of America, Minnesota, in April is now back in school and walking without a limp, his family said. The boy, identified only as Landen, is “now walking PERFECTLY,” according to an update posted Friday on a GoFundMe page for his medical costs, which has raised nearly $1.1 million since the incident occurred. A 25-year-old stranger, Emmanuel D. Aranda, threw him from a 40-foot high third-floor balcony near the Rainforest Cafe, which left him critically injured with head trauma and leg and arm fractures. Aranda pleaded guilty in May to one count of attempted first-degree murder and was sentenced in June to 19 years in prison, a conviction that he is appealing. According to the GoFundMe post, Landen tells people 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!” Landen was hospitalized and spent several months in rehab by the time he was moved out of intensive care in August.