Authorities say a 5-year-old boy who was thrown from a third-floor balcony at the Mall of America near Minneapolis remains hospitalized with serious injuries.
Bloomington police Chief Jeffrey Potts said in a news conference Saturday that the boy fell nearly 40 feet after a man threw him off the balcony Friday. Authorities haven’t released the boy’s name and say his family is requesting privacy.
Potts said he couldn’t give an update on the boy’s status, but that he’s alive and receiving care and that his parents are with him. Hospital officials haven’t responded to requests for a status update.
Twenty-four-year-old Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda, of Minneapolis, was arrested at the mall’s transit station after the attack and is jailed on a suspicion of attempted homicide charge. Court records show he was charged in two previous incidents at the mall and at one point had a trespass notice banning him from the mall.
Police don’t believe Aranda knew the boy’s family.