Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda: alleged Mall of America pusher has chaotic record

Authorities say a five-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 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. According to local station WCCO, police anticipate charges will be filed Monday.

Aranda has a history with police at the mall

According arrest records obtained by WCCO, Aranda has had numerous run-ins with police after allegedly causing chaos at the Mall of America.

Aranda was taken into custody in July 2015 after he allegedly threw things from the upper balcony of the Mall of America to the lower balcony. At the time, police wrote that he refused to ask questions when confronted about the incident, and resisted arrest.

Police wrote in the document that Aranda was also suspected of damaging merchandise at stores Bare Minerals and Ragstock.

According to police records, employees identified Arenda, and said that he “swept his hand across a display table, knocking off and breaking two containers of lip glass [sic] valued at $18.00 each and three shot glasses valued at $2.00 each.”

In another incident that, Aranda allegedly assaulted a woman at a restaurant in the mall after she refused to buy him food.

Aranda was also charged with destroying five computers at a public library, according to WCCO.