The man charged with throwing a 5-year-old over a railing at the Mall of America went there "looking for someone to kill," a court filing says. Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda, 24, was charged Monday with attempted first-degree premeditated murder, the Star-Tribune reports. The boy, identified only as Landen, suffered multiple fractured bones and massive head trauma Friday, the complaint says, in the 40-foot fall to a stone floor. Landen, who was at the mall with his mother, has undergone several surgeries. "He is the sweetest, kindest 5-year-old you will ever meet," a family friend said, per USA Today.
Aranda told investigators he had been going to the Minnesota mall for several years and had tried to talk to women there but was rejected, the filing says. The rejections led Aranda "to lash out and to be aggressive," investigators said, per the Star-Tribune. In 2015, Aranda was arrested at the mall after a police officer said he'd thrown items from the upper level. He was ordered to stay away from the mall for a year, police said, but ignored the order. Last Friday, he returned. "He said he planned to kill an adult, because they usually stand near the balcony," the criminal complaint said, "but he chose the victim instead." (More Mall of America stories.)
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