Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda.Photo: Bloomington Police Department
The suspect accused ofthrowing a 5-year-old boy over a third-floor railing at the Mall of Americain Minnesota was allegedly there Thursday “looking for someone to kill” — and when that did not “work out,” he returned on Friday and grabbed the boy instead, a criminal complaint alleges.
“This crime has shocked the community,” Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Monday in a statementannouncing a charge of attempted premeditated first-degree murderagainst the suspect, 24-year-old Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda. “That a child, with his mother, at a safe public place like a mall, could be violently attacked for no reason is chilling to everyone.”
“The child is currently in critical condition and the family is beginning a long journey to recovery,” said Freeman.
CBS Minnesota
Freeman said prosecutors will seek a $2 million bond to hold Aranda in jail when he makes his first scheduled court appearance on Tuesday.
Aranda allegedly told police he had gone to the mall on Thursday “looking for someone to kill,” and considered choosing an adult, but that did not “work out,” according to the criminal complaint.
About 10:15 a.m. Friday, Aranda was back at the mall and allegedly approached the victim and his mother as they were outside of the Rainforest Café on the third floor with another parent and child. When the victim’s mother saw Aranda, whom she had never seen before, come close, she asked if they should move out of his way.
Instead, the complaint alleges Aranda “without warning” picked up the boy and threw him over the railing to the first floor, which Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts earlier estimated to be about 40 feet.
Raymond Boyd/Getty Images
The suspect then took off running, pushing another witness who tried to stop him against a wall and then continuing to run until police caught him on the light-rail train outside of the mall, according to the prosecutor’s office.
That made him lash out and act aggressively, the prosecutor’s office said.
Chief Potts declined at a news conference Saturday to speculate on the suspect’s mental health history, but noted that in the suspect’s prior brushes with law enforcement, “it looks like some of those cases were handled through the mental health court, but still ultimately he was convicted of those cases.”
Alamy
In that second2015 complaint, police note that Aranda told officers he got “angry after he read something on the Facebook.”
• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage?Click hereto get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
It could not be determined if he had obtained an attorney to speak on his behalf regarding the current allegation.
In a statement Monday to PEOPLE, mall management declined to answer specific questions about criminal incidents or security at the mall.
source: people.com
