Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda has been charged with attacking a 5-year-old boy at the Mall of America Friday. Cops said the child fell three floors after being pushed or thrown over a railing. (Bloomington Police Department)
A man has been charged with attempted homicide in Friday’s unprovoked attack at the Mall of America in Minneapolis that left a 5-year-old boy with life-threatening injuries.
Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda, 24, has a history of mental health problems and had twice been banned from the mall, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Saturday.
The boy fell three floors after being pushed or thrown over a railing, according to Bloomington cops. The child and Aranda were strangers, they said.
Brian Johnson told a local news outlet he heard the boy’s mother scream, "Everybody pray, everybody pray. Oh my God, my baby, someone threw him over the edge."
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The boy was initially reported as not breathing, but is being treated at a hospital but there was no immediate word on his condition.
Aranda was arrested in the mall transit station after trying to flee, the paper reported.
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Aranda was banned from the mall for a year after he was seen throwing items from the third floor to the first floor in July 2015, Fox 9 Minneapolis reported.
He violated the ban in October 2015 when he was arrested for throwing a drinking a glass at woman at a restaurant, the station reported. He was banned again from the mall until December 2017.
Aranda was panhandling at the time, according to the Star-Tribune. He was ordered to get a mental health evaluation as part of his sentence in that case.
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The Mall of America issued a statement Friday: “This was a senseless act and words cannot truly express our profound shock and sadness.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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