Mom of Boy Thrown Off Balcony at Mall of America Speaks Out

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo: ABC News

In a new interview onGood Morning America, Landen’s mom, Kari Hoffman, recalled the shocking incident. “We were just looking at the alligator at the Rainforest Café, and a stranger came up and was whispering to these two little boys. And I thought that he was gonna turn this alligator on for them,” Hoffmann said on the show. “He snatched [Landen] and ran. And I was just frozen … It happened so fast. I screamed, ‘No!’ after he was already thrown.”

Landen was rushed to the hospital and treated for brain trauma. “Listening to him breathing with the machine’s beeping was the best sound I’ve ever heard in my life,” Hoffmann said on the show. “Because that meant he was alive.”

Landen also spoke out on the show. “Some people don’t believe it, but I don’t care if they do or not. I just care that lots of people care about me, and I care about them too.”

After a grueling months-long recovery, Landen was able to return to school for his first day of kindergarten. The child is now an active 8-year-old; he loves his cat and enjoys playing hockey, perGMA. Hoffman said her son’s survival is a “miracle” and that she believes “angels” helped save him.

Hoffman’s religious faith, she said, also helped her reach a place of forgiveness for the man who shoved her son. “I don’t think forgiveness is a feeling, it’s a decision you have to make. It’s a decision that you have to make so that God can do what he needs to do in your life … and that was to save Landen.”

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Last year, the Hoffman family also filed a lawsuit against the Mall of America for letting Ananda onto the property.

source: people.com