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By Dan Cancian
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A crowdfunding campaign set up to help a 5-year-old boy who was thrown off the third floor of a shopping mall in Minnesota has raised over $1 million in just over three weeks.
The GoFundMe campaign was set up to help the family cover medical costs and has received donations from all 50 states. In total, over 28,000 people from 42 different countries have donated to the campaign.
Called "Help for Landen—Mall of America Attack Victim," the campaign was launched by a family friend and was initially aiming to raise $500,000. However, at the time of writing the total amount of donations stood at $1.02 million.
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Last month, 5-year-old Landen Hoffman was at the shopping mall with his mother in Bloomington, Minnesota, when a stranger picked him up and threw him off the third-floor balcony. Emmanuel Aranda was arrested and charged by Bloomington Police with attempted premeditated first degree murder.
The 24-year-old reportedly went to the Mall of America looking to commit murder as revenge for being repeatedly rejected by women at the shopping mall over the last seven years. According to NBC-affiliate Kare 11, Aranda told officers that he planned to kill someone at the mall the day before he threw the kid off the balcony.
However, when the plan "did not work out," he returned to the mall the following day. Hoffman's mother told officers that she was standing in front of the Rain Forest Cafe with a friend and her child, when Aranda accosted them.
She then asked Aranda, who neither of them knew, whether they were in his way, before he abruptly picked up her son and threw him off the balcony. As he tried to flee the scene, a bystander chased him down and tried to pin him against the wall but the assailant managed to escape and was eventually arrested on a light-rail train outside the mall.
After the near 40 foot fall, Hoffman was hospitalized with multiple broken bones, including arms and legs, and he also suffered a severe head trauma.
"This crime has shocked the community," Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman was quoted as saying by Kare 11 after the arrest.
"That a child, with his mother, at a safe public area like a mall, could be violently attacked for no reason is chilling for everyone. Our victim advocates are working with the family during this very difficult time for them. We charged Mr. Aranda with the most severe crime that the evidence allowed."
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