The Latest on a 5-year-old child injured in an apparent attack at Minnesota’s Mall of America (all times local):
5 p.m.
Court records show a 24-year-old Minneapolis man suspected of throwing or pushing a 5-year-old boy from a balcony at the Mall of America was charged in two previous incidents at the mall.
Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda was arrested on July 4, 2015, after police said he matched the description of a man throwing things off the upper level of the mall to the lower level. Police say Aranda refused to give his name and resisted arrest. Aranda also was accused of walking into a mall store and sweeping his hand across a display table, breaking glasses.
In October 2015, Aranda was accused of throwing glasses in Twin Cities Grill in the mall. The complaint says Aranda approached a woman who was waiting for the restaurant to open and asked her to buy him something. The woman refused, and Aranda allegedly threw a glass of water in her face and a glass of tea that struck her leg. Aranda was under a trespass notice at the time banning him from the mall until July 4, 2016.
Aranda was chased and arrested Friday after the boy was thrown or pushed from a third-floor balcony and landed on the first floor at the mall. The boy suffered life-threatening injuries.
4:30 p.m.
A 24-year-old Minneapolis man is being held on suspicion of attempted homicide in an apparent attack in which a 5-year-old boy was pushed or thrown from a third-floor balcony at the Mall of America.
Police identified Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda as the man who was chased and arrested after Friday morning’s incident at the megamall in suburban Minneapolis.
The child suffered life-threatening injuries and is being treated at a hospital. Details of his condition weren’t immediately available.
Aranda’s criminal record includes two convictions in 2015 for obstruction of the legal process/interfering with a peace officer, as well as convictions for fifth-degree assault, trespassing and damage to property.
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4:15 p.m.
Police in Minnesota say a 5-year-old boy suffered life-threatening injuries when he was pushed or thrown from a third-floor balcony at the Mall of America.
Witnesses say the boy’s mother was screaming and asking others to pray for her son.
Tina Hailey of Burnsville, Minnesota, tells the Star Tribune she was walking with her husband on the mall’s first floor when she heard screams. Hailey says the mother appeared to be in shock and “didn’t know what to do,” and that “Nobody was helping her.”
Witnesses say a suspect ran away and was arrested at the mall’s transit station. The 24-year-old man from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area is being held at the Bloomington Police Department.
The boy was taken to a hospital. His condition is unknown.
Police say the suspect apparently does not know the victim or the victim’s family
