Photo: CBS Minnesota
The suspect, 24-year-old Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda, was known to authorities and previously had been barred for a time from the mall in 2015 for offenses that included disorderly conduct and damage to property, Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts said at a news conference Saturday.
Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda.Bloomington Police Department
“We feel confident saying that the suspect threw the child off of the third floor, but as to why he did that, it is still something that we’re looking into and trying to figure out,” he said.
“One witness who witnessed the incident tried to stop the suspect from fleeing, and so we’re very appreciative of his efforts to try to intervene and help out in a very difficult situation,” Potts said.
Alamy
The suspect and the victim were unknown to each other, he said.
“He is the sweetest kindest 5-year-old you will ever meet,” the family friend wrote in describing Landen on the GoFundMe page. “His soul is soft and gentle and instantly brings a smile to everybody he meets.”
Police responded to the incident at the mall at 10:17 a.m. Friday.
“There is video,” said the police chief, who added that he estimated the child had fallen about 40 feet from the third to the first level of the mall.
“As you can imagine, that’s a pretty high fall,” he said.
Potts added: “When it’s involving a young child like that, it’s pretty gut-wrenching for everybody involved.”
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He declined 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.”
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An employee from the Bare Minerals store went on to tell police that Aranda had “walked into the store, and without saying anything, swept his hand across a display table, knocking off and breaking two containers of lip gloss valued at $18.00 each and three shot glasses valued at $2.00 each,” the outlet reported.
In the2015 complaint, police note that Aranda told officers he got “angry after he read something on the Facebook.”
It could not be determined if he had obtained an attorney to speak on his behalf regarding the current allegation.
source: people.com
