A five-year-old boy who was attacked and viciously thrown from the third floor of the Mall of America is defying the odds and stunning doctors in what is being called a “miracle,” according to the pastor at the family’s church.
Landen Hoffman was shopping with his mother and friends on April 12 when he was thrown over the rail of a balcony by 24-year-old Emmanuel Aranda.
Aranda told police that he had gone to the mall intending to kill an adult “because they usually stand near the balcony” but it did not “work out.”
Aranda is now being charged with first-degree attempted premeditated murder.
“It is a miracle he wasn’t killed,” Pastor Mac Hammond told the congregation.
Hammond leads Living Word Christian Church in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota and shared an update with the church Easter Sunday.
Hammond and his wife visited the family last week to encourage them, pray, and bring communion after the incident.
Landen fell to the first floor and suffered from broken arms and legs, and until recently, it was believed that he suffered significant head trauma.
However, Hammond told the church that he received a call from Landen’s grandfather with good news after a five hour MRI to determine the full extent of the boy’s injuries.
“There was zero evidence of brain damage — there wasn’t even swelling in the brain,” Hammond said Sunday. “No spinal cord injury, no nerve damage, no internal injuries that were life-threatening.”
Hammond added that one of his attending physicians marveled at Landen’s health.
“This is truly a miracle. It’s like he fell off a bicycle instead of off the third floor of the mall,” Hammond said recounting the physician’s words.
Hammond also shared during the message that the Holy Spirit had given Landen’s mother a warning just before they met friends at the mall that day.
“In her words, a dread came over, but she didn’t feel like she could leave because she was supposed to meet this other mom and son there,” Hammond explained.
But he says she did the only thing she knew to do — she prayed.
“She called on the ministering angels to hedge him about,” Hammond recalled.
Although mall goers were heard screaming as Landen landed, witnesses say his mother was heard yelling “just pray!”
Hammond told the church it was an Easter miracle.
“This is resurrection power … this is what the Word will do. It’ll open up power to you to restore whatever the enemy is able to bring about or fend him off completely.”
According to a recent post on the GoFundMe page set up for the family, Landen is “showing real signs of recovery.”
The fundraising campaign has raised nearly $1 million to help cover the cost of medical treatments and rehabilitative programs.