November 26, 2025 • 45 mins
In Minnesota, the Mall of America is not just a place to shop; being the largest mall in the Western Hemisphere, it is also a tourist attraction.
Located on the spot where the NFL Vikings and Major League Baseball Twins play in Metropolitan Stadium, in the mall's amusement park, a seat from Metropolitan Stadium marks the exact spot Harmon Killebrew's 520th MLB home run landed.
Spanning four floors, locals come to shop, while tourists come to gawk at the sheer size of the mall.
On a chilly April morning, with snow still on the ground, Kari Hoffmann, her 5-year-old son Landen, a friend, and her son Will arrive at the mall early, before all the stores open. Standing outside the Rain Forest Cafe, third floor, the boys play on a fake rock when a man Kari thinks is an employee walks up to the boys.
Asking if it was ok for the boys to be on the rock, the man tells the moms, very nicely, it's ok, "you can be here." The man then leans down and whispers something in Will's ear.
Later, details uncover that he says, "If you don't get off this rock, I'm going to throw you off.
As the boys nervously giggle, the man reaches around Will, grabs Landen, and throws the 5-year-old over the third-floor railing. Frozen for a moment, Kari Hoffmann screams as her boy is falling more than three stories to the ground; the shaken mother runs down the escalator to her broken little boy, telling onlookers to pray as she runs.
Falling 40 feet to the ground, Landen Hoffmann breaks his skull, facial bones, both arms, and a leg, as well as suffers a life-threatening injury to his vena cavae vein running to his heart. Two nurses who work in a cardiac unit happen to be near when this horrific event happens and perform CPR on Landen.
He is taken to the Minneapolis Children's Hospital, where he is immediately rushed into lifesaving surgery, and from there he is placed in the intensive care unit, doctors unsure if he will survive the trauma.
While stunned onlookers are encouraged by Kari Hoffmann to pray for her son, back up on the third floor, a 68-year-old man tackles the suspect as he runs away, slowing the man down enough so even though he jumped on the railway, cops are able to arrest the man.
This terror is caused by 24-year-old Emmanuel Aranda, a man known to the mall with a history of arrests for trespassing, cited for throwing items at mall patrons from the top floor of the mall.
Weeks later, he returns to the mall, this time harassing two women and throwing things in a mall restaurant.
Joining Nancy Grace today:
- Kari Hoffmann - Landen's Mother, Author of "Miracle at The Mall"
- Dr. Thomas Coyne - Chief Medical Examiner, District 2 Medical Examiner's Office, State of Florida; Forensic Pathologist, Neuropathologist, Toxicologist; X: @DrTMCoyne
- Dave Mack - 'Crime Stories' Investigative Reporter
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Terror in the Heartland.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
A beautiful little boy, just five years old hurled off
the Mall of America balcony. A predator stalked the mall
before throwing the child straight down.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I want to thank you for being with us.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Five year old Landon Hoffmann arrives at Minnesota's Mall of
America with his mom for a day of celebration, but
within minutes, an unsuspecting child will cross paths with an
evil stranger.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Joining us Landon's mother to tell us what happened that
day at Mall of America and about her journey since
this horrific tragedy.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
But first listen and I saw.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
The suspect pick up land in and it's kind of
tossing over the edge. I don't really think I could
put into words what I've just the filling on.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
A chili April morning, snow still on the ground, Carrie Hoffman,
her five year old son Landon, and a friend and
her son will arrive at the mall early before all
the stores are open. Standing outside the Rainforest Cafe on
the third floor, the boys are playing on a fake
rock when a man Carrie thought was an employee.
Speaker 6 (01:22):
He walks up to.
Speaker 5 (01:23):
The boys, asking if it was okay for the boys
to be on the rock. The man tells the moms
very nicely, it's okay, you can be here. The man
then leans down and whispers something into Will's ear.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Got from our forensic k A R E. Eleven and
join me. Landa's mom Carrie Hoffman, author of Miracle at
the Mall. Carrie, thank you for being with us. Why
did you take your children to the mall that day?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Mall of America.
Speaker 7 (01:52):
Landon had just finished preschool and we were going to
go there and do something fun, celebrate the end of preschool,
beginning of kindergarten. What's to be a fun.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Day, you know, Carrie, It's really interesting that your idea
of fun is taking the children to the mall, because
I try to discourage my children from being mall rats.
But Mall of America is different. Mall of America isn't
just a mall where all you can do is shop
and spend money on material things.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
With all the other.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
You know, you're bombarded with materialism, But at Mall of America,
it really is a tourist spot.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
I was researching.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
They have Nickelodeon Universe, an indoor theme park, Sea Life,
Minnesota Aquarium. They have the Amazing Mirror Maze, the Rock
of Ages, black Light, Mini Golf, fifty restaurants, events, activities.
It's seven acres. The Nickelodeon Universe has a seven acre
(02:55):
indoor theme park, twenty four rides like roller coasters and
family friendly attractions. They have the aquarium with Marine Life.
They have that Mirror Maize. It's reflections and twists you
try to get through.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Mini Golf.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
They have that Crayola experience. They have Museum of Illusions,
and over fifty restaurants. There's also fly Over America, the
Escape game.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I mean, I could go.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
On and on and on about what's in the Mall
of America. So when I first heard you took your
children for fun at the mall, I'm like, what is
fun about wandering endlessly around and around and around stores?
Speaker 1 (03:39):
But it's actually a lot of fun. What did you
have in mind that day?
Speaker 7 (03:43):
Well, it is really close to my house, so it's
only about twenty minutes, and so we can go there
and just do the one thing. It is that big
and has all of that stuff. But that day we
were just going to that Krayola experience. We knew it
was on the third floor.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
What is that?
Speaker 7 (03:58):
You just go, you go pay to go in there.
It's a separate, you know, experience, and you go from
station to station creating things with crans, so you can
like melt crans and do a spin arts. You can
pretend you're a crayon and dance like a crayon. There's
there's like a whole creon slides and everything has to
do with the creole, the creole a crayon. Just you
(04:21):
just go around and spend there.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
At our mall for the Twins, which we thought was
just amazing, was a Lego land and they had some
rides and they had three D movies and like when
it would rain you'd get wet or just and we
just thought that was the biggest thing ever, was to
(04:44):
go to the Lego Land. It was just one big
room and a playpit, a playpit, and my son was
already getting tall and I had to bring id to
show he was under twelve because he was already taller
than me. You know, it's just the dichotomy, because those
are some of the happiest memories that I have of
(05:06):
taking them and their friends and playing in the ballpit
and riding those crazy rides with them in a mall. Yeah,
And the dichotomy between your happy intentions and what happened
that day, it just it hurts to think about it.
(05:27):
What tell me what happened?
Speaker 7 (05:30):
Well, we were there before it opened, so it opened
at ten am, and we were there probably quarter two,
so we were You could park and you could walk in,
and you could go wait outside the experience until it opened,
and so that's what we were doing. We were kind
of just standing on those rocks outside that Rainforest Cafe,
which is right next to the Kerala Experience, waiting for
it to open. And we were just leaning over those
(05:52):
rocks looking at that alligator, trying to see if it
would turn on. Usually it goes up and down and
steam come out, and it wasn't doing that because it
wasn't on yet. It wasn't open. But the boys were
just like looking at it waiting for it to come on.
And when we were doing that, a man had walked
up and leaned put his elbows on the rock and
leaned over and was talking to the boys quietly in
(06:16):
their ears. And I was right there with the other
mom that I was with, and we were talking and
the boys as this man was whispering in their ear,
and they were giggling, and so whatever he was saying
was funny, but it did strike me as odd, on
why is he leaning over and whispering. So I did
ask him if if he was going to turn the
alligator on. See it was winter or it was April,
(06:38):
but it was snowing that day and we all had
on winter coats and boots, and he had on short
sleeves and blue jeans, so I thought that he worked there,
and so I asked him if he was going to
turn the alliator on, and he said, you know, kind
of just mumbled to me. No, you know, I don't
know what he said, just no, no, kind of mumbles.
I said, well, is it okay if we stand here?
(06:59):
And he's like, oh, yeah, that's okay that you stand here,
just like it reassured me. He was nice, he looked
kind It wasn't. I didn't. I had a warning when
I went into the mall, but I did not have
a warning standing there talking to him.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Carrie, you just mentioned you had a signal a warning
when you first went into the mall.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
What happened?
Speaker 7 (07:19):
Yeah, I just it was driving into that parking ramp.
I just had an overwhelming whelming sense that I could
be in danger, something weird could happen today. It was
just like some odd feeling that I didn't feel comfortable with.
So I just prayed, and I asked God to go
before us to keep us safe everywhere we go. I
asked for angels to come with us to guard us
(07:41):
and keep us safe. I also led the blood of
Jesus around us, because I know the enemy can't cross
the blood line. So I just led blood of Jesus.
And then I thought, okay, let's go. We're gonna go
have a fun day. And so I had the warning
enough to pray that keep us safe today. But when
I was talking to the man, I believe it or not,
did not feel like I better get away. He was
(08:03):
reassuring me. I felt like, I honestly feel like the
enemy was working through this man and he was reassuring me,
and I was feeling comfortable because he was tricking me.
But I did not know that.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It's amazing to me, Carrie, that you felt that premonition
and you actually acted on it by praying. You know
now my twins take themselves to school, which I really
miss driving them to school. But the last thing they
would hear would be a prayer over them every morning
as they got out of the minivan to go to school. Yes,
(08:38):
and I can just imagine you pulling into that parking
ramp and getting that feeling. And you know a lot
of people pooh pooh feelings, and that's completely erroneous because
our feelings are hunches, premonitions, so to speak.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Are based on thousands of thousands of year years of evolution.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Something tips us off, or is in your case, you
believe it was a higher, a more divine warning.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And I'm thinking about.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
What you said, Carrie, that the man was talking to
the boys and they were giggling.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Listen, everybody.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
I ran down and found the first officer I saw
the entire time. My concern was for.
Speaker 8 (09:23):
Landing whispering so the moms can't hear. The man, who
is not an employee, has previously thought, tells the boys,
if you don't get off this rock, I'm going to
throw you off. The boys nervously giggle. When the man
reaches around, Will grabs land in and throws the five
year old over the third floor railing.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Oh my stars, that original sound was from our friends
at kare you're standing there with the other mom.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
What did you observe, Carrie?
Speaker 7 (09:57):
Yeah, actually Will was right next to the man, and
he went around Will and grabbed Land and took him
under the armpits and threw him over the balcony. And
it all happened so fast, like we were not that
far from the balcony, probably I don't know ten feet.
He ran that fast and through him before I could
even understand what just happened. As soon as he did it, though,
(10:18):
I screamed, no, devil, take your hands off. I'm somebody
just threw my baby. Went screaming down the escalator stairs
at somebody through my baby. I just went as fast
as I could do.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
You down the third floor.
Speaker 7 (10:30):
Carry, Yes, I was on the third floor.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
We're showing an image now inside Mall of America, and
you see the bottom the ground floor, the next floor,
but then the escalator takes you up even higher. Looked
all the way up near that glass roof to the
third floor, that is from where this child was thrown
(11:00):
to that hard, hard bass floor.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
You start screaming and do what.
Speaker 7 (11:09):
Carrie ran as fast as I can, yelling somebody through
my baby, somebody through my baby, everybody, come help pray.
As soon as I got down there, I saw him
or I didn't see him, and I yelled, where is he?
There wasn't many people there, like I said, it wasn't
open yet, and one woman pointed where he was and
I ran and picked him up, and she goes, no,
(11:29):
you have to put him down. Please put him down.
You know, my first instinct was to pick him up.
I don't remember what he looked like or anything. I
just saw him and scooped him up. And right behind
me two nurses happened to be on the second level
waiting for a st door to open. Like I was,
I am brooding, landing on to live and take a breath.
So they were giving him CPR and they said, we
got a heart beat, and I said, yes, we got
(11:51):
a heart beat. Everybody pray. And I looked up and
there's three levels of people all looking over the balcony
and I just looked up there and I said, everybody pray.
He has a heartbeat. And then they said he just
took a breath, and I said, yes, he took a breath.
Everybody pray, and I just begged everyone one around staring
to pray. This is what we're doing. We're praying, and
we're routing landing On to live and not die. And
that's what we were doing.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
As the five year old is amazed by the rainforest cafe,
the perpetrator closes in. He leans down whispers something to
the little boy. Seconds later, the mall will erupt in chaos.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Joining me is Landon's mom, who describes running down an
escalator begging people around her to pray for her son.
As she reaches land and picks him up and is
still praying that he is alive. But at that moment,
as she is praying, Landon is dead with no heartbeat.
(12:52):
The guy, Miss Hoffman, that threw your son over the
balcony on the third of Mall of America, had a
reputation in the mall of throwing things off the balcony,
throwing things into restaurants, Yet he was still there.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
He had not been banned from the all.
Speaker 7 (13:18):
I mean, I don't know what the whole background is
on that. I never wanted anything to do with this guy.
I know that he had issues there, and I think
he was banned. I think there was a lot at
the time that you could only be banned for up
to six months, maybe one year, and so I mean
that has been changed now, but I don't know. I
don't like to go down that role, that hole of
(13:40):
all the things I have to do with this man,
because he is no part of our life.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
You know what, You're so wise, Carrie.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
I try not to think about the guy that murdered
my fiance because it's wasted energy. Yeah, it's completely wasted
energy and time and can take me down a dark hole.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
That's try. It's very difficult to get out of. Listen
to this.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
Everybody falling forty feet to the ground, Landen Hoffman breaks
his skull, facial bones, both arms, and a leg, as
well as a life threatening injury to his vina kVA
running to his heart. Two nurses who work in a
cardiac unit happen to be right there when it happened
and are able to perform CPR on the little boy.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Joining us right now.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Is a renowned medical examiner, the Chief Medical Examiner District
two Medical Examiner's Office, State of Florida. He is a
forensic pathologist, a toxicologist, and a neuro pathologist. Wow doctor
Thomas Coin, thank you for being with us. I'm hearing
a lot of medical jargon if you can make some
(14:46):
sense of it for us. We're told landon falls forty
feet and remember age five, age five, If that makes
any difference, fall's.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Forty feet is thrown. He didn't fall thrown forty.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Feet to a hard surface, the bottom floor of Mall
of America. It looks like it's tile, which is probably
on top of cement. Forty feet to the ground, breaks
the skull, facial bones, both arms, and a leg. And
(15:21):
this is the thing I don't understand. Life threatening injury
to Veena Kava running to his heart, what does that mean?
Speaker 6 (15:33):
Sure, those are types of injuries that I will see
in high impact car collisions or injuries where the body
absorbs a lot of force. And the vein we remember
from school, the blood is carried in our body through
arteries and veins. Arteries carry the blood away from our
heart to oliver organs, and the veins deliver the blood
(15:53):
back to our heart from oliver organs. The vein of
keva is the largest vein that we have in our body,
and it courses from our pelvic region back up to
the heart. And so all of the blood that comes
from our feet and our legs comes together into the
vena cava, and as the vina cable travels back up
to the heart along the spine, all of the organs
in our body send veins that communicate with the vena cava,
(16:16):
allowing all that blood to come back to our art
to get rid of the carbon dioxide and get new oxygen.
The vinagable, like I said, is a large vessel. And
so when the body absorbs a large amount of force,
whether it be a car car crash, or in this
case a fall from great height at impact, the body
will absorb that force, will get stretched and become deformed.
(16:38):
And as it becomes deformed, those blood vessels are stretched
beyond their normal elastic capacity. You know, like a rubber band,
if you stretch it too far, it will break. Well,
the same thing can happen to a blood vessel, and
sometimes what happens is the inner layer of that blood
vessel may tear, allowing blood to escape. That inner layer.
In between the layers of the blood vessels can slowly
(17:01):
grow and expand, and so in this case that injury
may not have been recognized at first. They probably realized
he wasn't bleeding into any of his body cavities. They
attended to all of his injuries, and that other small
injury in that vein could have slowly grown over time,
being a threat to rupture at some point, especially if
he started to do normal activity. Again, that we see
(17:23):
that sometimes a vascular dissection is called. And again when
I see in the vein, very often high impact collisions,
I see it from an abdominal trauma and in this case,
more likely when he fell and impacted the ground.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Okay, So the vena cava runs directly to the heart.
Speaker 6 (17:44):
Yes, it will go right into the bottom of the heart,
and that's where all of the blood draining from our
lower half and our Torso we'll get back to the heart.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
We always hear about the femeral artery or the jugular
or the carotid artery. You don't hear a lot about
the vena kava. I guess because it's protected by the ribcage.
Speaker 6 (18:09):
Correct, it's protected by the body, so all the organs
set over it. And again, you very rarely see an
injury like that unless you have extreme force, and in
this case, of course, rare to see this a person survive.
But nevertheless, side did that fall from three floors is
enough force to cause this kind of injury deep inside
the body?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
You know, this child was thrown from the third level.
It's way up there near the skylights of the Mall
of America. I mean, that's scary and I'm curious.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
He I've learned.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Was attended to almost immediately by two nurses who happened
to be at the mall that race down and start
resuscitating him or trying to. How is it different to
resuscitate a child versus an adult.
Speaker 6 (19:04):
Well, it may it may be a little easier in
the sense that you know, a child isn't compensating for
underlying heart disease. Right, so many of us, as we
get to be in our forties and fifties, we will
accumulate heart disease over time, and that may make the
heart less responsive to resuscitation. A child is much younger.
But also the injuries themselves may not be as severe
(19:27):
in a child as opposed to an older adult who
may have more internal bleeding, just because of the fact
that their masses greater. They're not as plastic or pliable,
so their ability to withstand such a force will be
less and less, say a much smaller child, but in
particular a child. Children also tend to be a little
more resistant to loss of oxygen. So you know the
(19:50):
classic story of a child who drowns and then is
resuscitated even you know, maybe up to thirty minutes later,
and is able to still regain normal brain function. So
it may very well be that they have a little
more plastic ability than adults do, and so sometimes in
children it's a little bit easier to get that return
of normal spontaneous circulation without having long term frametime.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Crime stories With Nancy Grace, you know, doctor Coyne, I
have handled cases where I found in the autopsy a
lot of bruising to the body and was told by
the medical examiner like yourself, that that bruising occurred during CPR.
(20:41):
This child already suffered multiple broken bones. How do you
resuscitate the child when he is covered in breaks and injuries?
Speaker 6 (20:51):
Sure, I mean it's a ton of war. You're trying
to provide resuscitation or enough force to the chest, because
mind you, when you're when you're doing CPR, what you're
effectively doing is compressing the body to allow the body
to squeeze the heart so you can pump blood through
the body. So you want to do it with enough
force that actually allows the ribs above to compress down
(21:14):
upon the heart to allow blood to flow. And so
you you take into consideration that some injuries may and
very well occur in adults who are less plastic right there,
their ribs aren't. Children have much more cartilage. As we
get older, are our bones. The cartilage will turn into bone.
You'll also have more mineralization or calcium deposits in your bones,
so they're a little more easy to break. So in adults,
(21:37):
I see very commonly rib fractures, external fractures in persons
who administer CPR, But in children they're more plastic, so
you're less likely to get a rib fracture. But nevertheless,
at the end of the day, we're trying to save
this person's life. So you you take into consideration, yes,
I'm going to have some injury, but more importantly, can
I get this person's heart restarted, Can I get blood
(21:58):
flow back to their body? Then I can worry about
treating all of those injuries.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
You know, doctor Coyn, I've never heard a victim referred
to as plastic, more plastic, less plastic.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
What are you saying?
Speaker 6 (22:09):
Sure, so you know I'm more pliable? Right, So again children,
and I'm sure we all are not growing up. I
was able to do a split and do things I
certainly cannot do in m twenties and definitely not now
in my fifteen.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
I bet you could our bodies.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
Our bodies. I wouldn't want to try it. But our bodies,
especially the ligaments, the tendons, all to the cartilaginous parts.
They're much more pliable as a child. As we get older,
as they begin to ossify or form bone, or accumulate
minerals from aging calcification or calcium in particular, your bones
become less pliable. Your ligaments become less pliable. That's why
it's much more easier to tear a ligament as we
(22:45):
get older. So children have more pliability. So when they
fall and their bodies to form on impact. Right, as
you can imagine, if a bone, let's say, is being
impact that that bone will bend due to the force,
and it will be up to the point upon which
it can't bend anymore because it's not elastic, so it
will fracture. A child's bone in certain areas have more cartilage,
(23:08):
so it's more pliable, so it has more give, if
you will, so maybe less likely to fracture than say
a person who's in their twenties or thirties. So that's
what I mean by more plastic. They're a little more pliable,
but also plastic in terms of their ability to respond
to injury. They're still growing, you know, they're healthy. Their organs,
you know, have no plaques or disease that we have
(23:31):
that makes us harder to compensate for injury. A child
is much more readily capable of compensating for an injury
than an adult.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Doctor coin, How does a fall cause brain injury or
a crash?
Speaker 1 (23:43):
I mean, I know that they do, But how does
that happen?
Speaker 2 (23:47):
What happens to your brain that leaves you with a
permanent brain injury?
Speaker 6 (23:52):
Sure, there's two things really that happen. Well, let's first
break it down. There's primary injury, and the primary injury
is the effect of the actual impact itself. So there's
the direct impact. When your head strikes a hard object
or a heard object strikes your head, that will number
one cause the force of that object to be transmitted
(24:13):
throughout your brain, and so your brain will literally move
within your skull, you know, side to side, front to back,
slamming into the skull itself. The brain is very soft,
like agella mold, so it's very easy for the brain
to bruise and get injured. That's the first thing, the
direct injury. The second thing is the brain will also
rotate around a central axis, so as you imagine if
(24:36):
you kick a soccer ball, as that soccer ball is kicked,
it will roll, it will spin. The brain wants to
spin too after impact, and it will spin or rotate
within the actual skull itself. That rotation stretches all of
those tiny nerve fibers, and if it stretches it too far,
they can tear. And so critically, if the bottom of
(24:57):
our brain, where our brain stem sits, it's the part
of our brain that you know, allows us to breathe
without having to think about it. We're not sitting here
thinking about breathing in breathing out. If fibers in those
areas are torn or injured, that person can stop breathing
and they can die up all of a sudden. So
brain injury does those two things primarily, but it's a
secondary injury that's more dangerous, and that's the swelling that occurs,
(25:18):
because you know, I'm sure we've all gotten punched in
our arm before. You may see the initial redness or
a little bit of bruising, but over time swelling occurs,
and sometimes you can get a significant amount of swelling.
Looks like I have a softball on your arm, right.
That same thing happens to our brain. But the problem
is the brain is within the skull and it has
nowhere to go. So as the swelling occurs, pressure builds up,
(25:39):
and that pressure is directed back on the brain itself,
which can physically compress the brain structures, destroying them or
more importantly, prevent blood flow to those areas because blood
vessels are compressible.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
You know what, whoa whoa white white Oay. Remember I'm
just a g I'm trying to keep up with you,
but you're saying, okay.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
So the brain is hurt like a bruise, and it
starts to.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Swell, and then there's nowhere for it to go, like
your arm can go out. I remember every time I
got an allergy shot, my arms swell up like two
of them like an egg. And my dad would actually
I'd look over at him, he be driving me home
from the allergy doctor, and there'd be tears going in
his eyes because he'll look over and see my arms
swelling up.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
I'm trying to think about how that connects to the brain.
The brain tries to swell up and it hits the
skull and has nowhere to go, so it starts.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Damaging the brain, killing the brain cells because they're up
against the skull.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Is that right, Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
The pressure, Okay, so that's why they put a shut,
a hole in the head.
Speaker 6 (26:45):
A shut, or they'll literally out of the skull to
relieve the pressure. Yet, so that secondary part is all
times most dangerous. And imagine this, if it's so severe,
if the pressure inside the brain or skulls me it
is so high, if it's above our blood pressure, no
blood can flow into the head or into the brain,
(27:06):
and that's where things get really dangerous. And so managing
that part, the swelling of the brain, is the most
difficult part after an initial injury, and oftentimes that's what
is the fatal injury, is a secondary injury or swelling.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Doctor coryn, are you married, Yes?
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah, I'm not shopping, Okay, I've only raised one. I
don't want to start all over with another one.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
I'm just curious.
Speaker 9 (27:34):
You're so.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Brilliant, But I bet when you go home your life
is like, did you take out the trash?
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Okay? Do you know?
Speaker 6 (27:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (27:44):
My kids always I'm literally hanging on every word you're saying.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
I'm just trying to take it all in. Okay, let
me ask you this.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
We talked about the resuscitation when I have reason to
believe when mom ran running down the escalator, you know
how sharp those things are, the steps. She's running, screaming
to all three levels, pray, pray, pray.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
When she gets to.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Her son, Doctor cron, I think he was dead. I
think he was dead at that moment. How can that
be good? Way?
Speaker 6 (28:31):
Well, you know death? How he labeled death. Usually we
say when a heart stops speeding, right, But and his
heart made very well been stopped. But the brain tissue
is still alive until it exhausts all of its energy,
all of its oxygen. And so although he may not
(28:51):
have been conscious and may not have been able to
remember those events, his brain made very well still been functioning,
may have been receptive to his mother's voice, to certain
sounds around him, It's hard to know because the problem
always is in these cases is our inability to remember.
I use this bad analogy of a person who goes
out drinking at nighttime they have you know, they go
(29:12):
to parties, and then they wake up the next morning
and they can't remember a thing. It isn't that the
events never occurred the night before, It's just that the
alcohol prevented them from being able to remember the events.
So in this way, you know, the injury is preventing
you from encoding those memories. So if you ask a
person days or you know, a long time after, hey,
do you remember the events? Do you remember your mother
speaking to you? You may not be able to remember anything,
(29:34):
but it doesn't mean that at that moment you couldn't
hear her voice, couldn't hear her prayers, And who knows,
maybe that gave him enough strength to keep on going.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
But how do you go from being dead on the
floor of them all of America to being alive again?
I mean, I think you're going to give me some
medical explanation, but no, no, it was like a miracle
to me.
Speaker 6 (30:00):
It is. It's a miracle that those two nurses were
there to initiate CPR, because the real key was just
getting blood flow back to the brain. Was to allow
blood flow get back to the brain and the vital
organs so he could then be transported to the hospital
and have all those injuries you attended to. That was
the miracle, really, it was making sure that his heart,
(30:23):
although it stopped temporarily, was restarted and life can go on.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
One last thing, doctor Coin, the mom kept talking to
him even when he had been he was dead, his
heart not beating, and we've I've always heard this anecdotally.
I don't have any statistics to tell me this, because
no one apparently believes the near death or after life experiences.
(30:51):
But we have been told over and over and over
that people can hear. It's the last sense to leave
you that people can hear even after they're declare did
and they can when they're resuscitated, they can recall what.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Was being said around them. Is there any way that
Landon heard his mother.
Speaker 6 (31:15):
It's quite possible. Yeah, because as I mentioned, although the
heart stopped beating, the brain tissue is still all those
cells throughout our brain, all those nerve fibers are still
there potentially active, and so if those little fibers in
his ears are hearing sounds, they are transmitting those signals
to his brain. Again, he may not have been conscious
or may not be able to remember those those signals,
(31:35):
but I'm assuming it's quite possible that he was still
receiving those signals without warning.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
A twenty four year old man lunges at a toddler
in one of the fanciest malls in America, lifting the
boy up off his feet and hurling over a thirty
nine foot balcony. The child swams onto the tile below.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Miss Hofflan, I know that you were already out trying
to get in to that ambulance at the time. Standers
by grabbed this guy, tackled him and hailed him as
he tried to escape. So I want to go back
to your story, Carrie, what happened when you got to
the hospital.
Speaker 7 (32:14):
When we get to the hospital, he goes right into
a life saving room where it's just a big empty room,
and you go in there and all the doctor they
told me this was a miracle. At all the doctors
that they needed to be there were there, the bone doctor,
the brain doctor, you know, the pickewed surgeon, everybody who
they needed to be there were there, and they wheeled
(32:34):
them into the room and they all started working on
his body immediately, five or six doctors all doing different
setting his bones, stopping the bleed, removing his spleen, and
I got to go right in there with him. I
couldn't see, so I stood up on a chair and
I just was praying that the God would use those
doctors to put him back together. And I was praying
(32:54):
out loud, which I don't normally do, and they let
me do that. At one point they did say, okay,
everybody quiet, because it was just chaos and they're trying
to stop all the major injuries. And they said, if
you don't need to be talking, please don't be talking.
But I considered myself need to be talking at that
time because I wanted landin to hear me and I
wanted him to fight to be alive, and so they
(33:15):
did let me. I wasn't doing it annoying or rude.
I was trying to let Land and hear me praying
to stay alive. And that's where we were. That's that
life saving room where they've just put them back together.
Then he goes across the hall to the MRI to
see the extent of his brain injury. So that's what
you do right when you get there.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
After that initial response and as you call it, the
life saving room, what happened after that to Landon?
Speaker 7 (33:44):
Then they rush him across the hall to give him
an MRI to see what extent he has of his
brain injury, what are going to be the consequences, and
right from there they rush him upstairs to surgery where
they can do not just like saving surgery, just every
other surgery he's going to need, which was the entire
day of surgeries.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Guys, this is the beginning of a very long journey.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Listen Landed Hoffmann has surgeries for his broken arms, a
broken leg, and skull fractures, and his spleen was removed.
He remains in intensive care for four months. He undergoes
more than a dozen surgeries and even broke his leg
for a second time during his rehab while doctors and
nurses are trying to get him out of bed and walking.
The break reveals his ban a cava vain running to
his heart is barely hanging on. Had he tried to
(34:32):
walk on it, he would have died. During his recovery.
A GoFundMe page is launched for medical.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Possible crime stores with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Miss Hoffin explained to me what happened when he tried
to stand up. This is after over a dozen surgeries.
He even broke his leg for a second time during rehab.
But the break itself was a miracle of sorts because
it revealed his vena cava vein running to his heart
(35:11):
was barely hanging on and had he been able to walk,
they were trying to get him up and walking, he
would have died.
Speaker 7 (35:21):
Yes, we didn't know the Vina Keva parked until the
day till four months later. He probably broke his leg
the second time two months in and we were in
there for four months and so after you know, six
to eight weeks after your that's how long it takes
for a bone to heal. And he had broken it
from the initial fall. After it was healed, that's where
(35:42):
he was able to stand up and do rehab to
get it too, you know, strong again, and that's when
he broke it a second time. He was on so
much pain medicine and he didn't know standing up that
he was just so fragile and his body was working
so hard to heal everything else, I just think it
broke a second time. But at that when we found
that out, we were so devastated because we wanted to
(36:04):
get out of bed. We were in bed for six
to eight weeks at that time, just feeling like, okay,
can we just stand up? Can we move it all?
We just couldn't because how fragile he was. And so
when we could finally stand up and then the learning
broke it a second time, we were devastated. And that's
where I was asking God, why why do we have
to stay in bed now another six to eight weeks?
(36:24):
Not only that, now he has to have a more
permanent cast. And so I could choose between an external
fix stator where they take screws three screws or four
screws down his leg, take it from his skin and
drill it into his bone to hold it into place.
I could do that, or I could do a hard
cast all the way from his foot all the way
up to his chest, and then he would really not
(36:46):
be able to move. Plus he couldn't get out of
bed to use the bathroom, so he was I have
to change him all the time, and having that big, long,
that big hard cast from his foot to his chest
was not an option for me, so we went with
the external fix stator, which gave him more movement. But
it was it was awful, It was painful, it was torture.
I hated that. We found out at the end of
(37:08):
our stay four months later that the vienna keeva was
the main issue that the doctors could not figure out.
It was closing to the size of a pinhole. And
that's when we learned good thing he broke his leg
a second time because had he not, he would have
been up walking around and that could have been devastating.
And so I knew there was a reason we broke
the leg because I thought God did not take us
(37:28):
through this miracle and keep him alive to go through
even more pain like this, just petty pain. So I
knew there was a reason, but I didn't know why.
And now I know why.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
As we mentioned, the recovery has been such a long road.
Speaker 8 (37:45):
Recovery is a long journey for the entire family. Gary
watches yes her son's personality changes. Where Landon had always
been a sweet and kind child, injury to the frontal
love of his brain causes his personality to shift, and
he became angry and mean. The injury causes his personality
to switch back to sweet and kind, only to change
(38:05):
again to angry and mean.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Carrie, I had a relative very close to me suffer
a traumatic brain injury after a crash and their personality
did change. Yeah, tell me what happened with Landa's personality change?
Speaker 7 (38:29):
You know, when I found out in the hospital halfway
through or whatever that this was going to be, I
knew I was going to get him back walking and talking.
I was going to have landed back. But they did
tell me he will have a slight personality change, we
don't know the extent of it, and that he will
be more impulsive as he grows up, because that's what
he injured, is his front alone. They also told me
that it was a good thing. If you could injure
(38:50):
any part of your brain, this is the part you
would want to injure, because people brain surgeons can remove
this part of your can still be alive and have
a good quality of life. And so at the time
when they told me that, I didn't care that he
was going to have a different personality or be more impulsive.
I was going to get him back. I was just
so thankful. But everything they told me when we did
(39:12):
get home and try to go to kindergarten two weeks
after we get home from the hospital, is when I
saw that he was in and out of being nice
and mean, and his eyes were like bulging out and
then and then and then I would just have to
teach him land and we don't do that. This is
not we don't act like that. He just had to
learn all over how to be kind again. And six
(39:36):
this we're now going on six years, and I do
think Landin is totally back to the kid he was
supposed to be. He is loving life, he is so kind,
so loving, loves people. He's back now, but it took
a long time to learn that, and I would say
at least three years of that in and out of mean.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
I want you to hear Landing for yourself.
Speaker 9 (40:00):
Lessens land Hi, they are one week but I.
Speaker 11 (40:16):
Yes, yes, now, a right, yes.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
That is Landing with a feeding tube in his nose,
singing a beloved song.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Jesus loves me. This I know. And here is more
from land.
Speaker 12 (40:45):
My name is Landon. I'm nine years old. I'm the
guy that got thrown at the third story at Mall
of America And that was the part where God came
in and helped as a miracle that I'm alive. God
healed all the parts in my body.
Speaker 6 (41:03):
I'm perfect.
Speaker 12 (41:06):
I would say that I want people to know my
story because I want them to believe in God and
go to heaven.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
That is a reference at Eagle Brook Church. That's amazing, Carrie,
that is amazing. Tell me about Landon now.
Speaker 7 (41:31):
He has a walking, talking miracle. He loves life. He
does not This story is not something sad. He is
not scared of people. He's not scared to be in public.
He knows that he is the boy that God used
to show the world a miracle, and he is proud
of it. And he will tell all of his friends,
(41:52):
do you believe in God? I hope people believe in
God because if you don't, you won't go to heaven
with me. And I want you to go to heaven.
And if you don't believe, it happens me. I have
all these scars and God saved me. And that's who
he is. He's just walking around showing everybody what a
miracle he is. That is the power of God. That's
who our God is today and Landon is living proof
that God is real, and he is powerful and he
(42:16):
listens when you call on him.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
Here is more from Landon.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
When your friends ask you about what happened to you,
what do you tell them.
Speaker 12 (42:24):
I tell him that it was me that got thrown
and they say really, and and I show them everything
on me.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
That from our friends at Good Morning America. You know,
I just want to see Landon speaking one more time.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Let's watch.
Speaker 12 (42:43):
My name is Landon and I'm nine years old. I'm
the guy that got thrown the third story at the
Mall of America. And that was the part where God
came in and helped. There's a miracle that I'm alive.
God healed all the my book.
Speaker 6 (43:01):
I'm perfect.
Speaker 12 (43:04):
I would say that I want people to know my
story because I want them to believe in God and
go to heaven.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
This is a miracle from our friends at Eagle Brook Church.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Carrie, you told me earlier.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Off air that you felt Christ with you particularly at
one moment.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Could you describe that.
Speaker 7 (43:35):
Just when I was in that hospital room, I was
held in a perfect peace the entire time. I mean
I intentionally didn't have TV on or outside noise of
the world. I asked people not to tell me what
was going on out there, because I wanted to be
close to God, and I was honestly held at perfect
(43:56):
peace that entire four months. I knew he was there,
I felt him there. It was just I was never scared.
Doctors were coming in and out, and some of them
would be maybe throwing telling me to throw in the towel.
I even had one told me I can't maintain this
warrior status forever. But I did not waiver. I felt
(44:17):
God's presence in that hospital room the entire four months,
and he kept me in that perfect peace, and I
felt Landon was going to be okay, and he was
never going to die, in my opinion.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
An incredible story of a miracle. Carrie describes it all
in her book Miracle at the Mall. Carrie, thank you
for telling us your story, land and story and giving
us your witness.
Speaker 7 (44:44):
Thank you so much for having me on the show.
I so appreciate being a part of this.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
We remember an American hero, Deputy share of Sidney Carter,
killed in a line of duty, survived by her parents.
Grieving parents Annette and Jerry, American hero Sheriff Sydney Carter.
Nancy Grace signing off goodbye friend,
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Terror in the Heartland.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
A beautiful little boy, just five years old hurled off
the Mall of America balcony. A predator stalked the mall
before throwing the child straight down.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I want to thank you for being with us.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Five year old Landon Hoffmann arrives at Minnesota's Mall of
America with his mom for a day of celebration, but
within minutes, an unsuspecting child will cross paths with an
evil stranger.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Joining us Landon's mother to tell us what happened that
day at Mall of America and about her journey since
this horrific tragedy.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
But first listen and I saw.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
The suspect pick up land in and it's kind of
tossing over the edge. I don't really think I could
put into words what I've just the filling on.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
A chili April morning, snow still on the ground, Carrie Hoffman,
her five year old son Landon, and a friend and
her son will arrive at the mall early before all
the stores are open. Standing outside the Rainforest Cafe on
the third floor, the boys are playing on a fake
rock when a man Carrie thought was an employee.
Speaker 6 (01:22):
He walks up to.
Speaker 5 (01:23):
The boys, asking if it was okay for the boys
to be on the rock. The man tells the moms
very nicely, it's okay, you can be here. The man
then leans down and whispers something into Will's ear.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Got from our forensic k A R E. Eleven and
join me. Landa's mom Carrie Hoffman, author of Miracle at
the Mall. Carrie, thank you for being with us. Why
did you take your children to the mall that day?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Mall of America.
Speaker 7 (01:52):
Landon had just finished preschool and we were going to
go there and do something fun, celebrate the end of preschool,
beginning of kindergarten. What's to be a fun.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Day, you know, Carrie, It's really interesting that your idea
of fun is taking the children to the mall, because
I try to discourage my children from being mall rats.
But Mall of America is different. Mall of America isn't
just a mall where all you can do is shop
and spend money on material things.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
With all the other.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
You know, you're bombarded with materialism, But at Mall of America,
it really is a tourist spot.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
I was researching.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
They have Nickelodeon Universe, an indoor theme park, Sea Life,
Minnesota Aquarium. They have the Amazing Mirror Maze, the Rock
of Ages, black Light, Mini Golf, fifty restaurants, events, activities.
It's seven acres. The Nickelodeon Universe has a seven acre
(02:55):
indoor theme park, twenty four rides like roller coasters and
family friendly attractions. They have the aquarium with Marine Life.
They have that Mirror Maize. It's reflections and twists you
try to get through.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Mini Golf.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
They have that Crayola experience. They have Museum of Illusions,
and over fifty restaurants. There's also fly Over America, the
Escape game.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I mean, I could go.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
On and on and on about what's in the Mall
of America. So when I first heard you took your
children for fun at the mall, I'm like, what is
fun about wandering endlessly around and around and around stores?
Speaker 1 (03:39):
But it's actually a lot of fun. What did you
have in mind that day?
Speaker 7 (03:43):
Well, it is really close to my house, so it's
only about twenty minutes, and so we can go there
and just do the one thing. It is that big
and has all of that stuff. But that day we
were just going to that Krayola experience. We knew it
was on the third floor.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
What is that?
Speaker 7 (03:58):
You just go, you go pay to go in there.
It's a separate, you know, experience, and you go from
station to station creating things with crans, so you can
like melt crans and do a spin arts. You can
pretend you're a crayon and dance like a crayon. There's
there's like a whole creon slides and everything has to
do with the creole, the creole a crayon. Just you
(04:21):
just go around and spend there.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
At our mall for the Twins, which we thought was
just amazing, was a Lego land and they had some
rides and they had three D movies and like when
it would rain you'd get wet or just and we
just thought that was the biggest thing ever, was to
(04:44):
go to the Lego Land. It was just one big
room and a playpit, a playpit, and my son was
already getting tall and I had to bring id to
show he was under twelve because he was already taller
than me. You know, it's just the dichotomy, because those
are some of the happiest memories that I have of
(05:06):
taking them and their friends and playing in the ballpit
and riding those crazy rides with them in a mall. Yeah,
And the dichotomy between your happy intentions and what happened
that day, it just it hurts to think about it.
(05:27):
What tell me what happened?
Speaker 7 (05:30):
Well, we were there before it opened, so it opened
at ten am, and we were there probably quarter two,
so we were You could park and you could walk in,
and you could go wait outside the experience until it opened,
and so that's what we were doing. We were kind
of just standing on those rocks outside that Rainforest Cafe,
which is right next to the Kerala Experience, waiting for
it to open. And we were just leaning over those
(05:52):
rocks looking at that alligator, trying to see if it
would turn on. Usually it goes up and down and
steam come out, and it wasn't doing that because it
wasn't on yet. It wasn't open. But the boys were
just like looking at it waiting for it to come on.
And when we were doing that, a man had walked
up and leaned put his elbows on the rock and
leaned over and was talking to the boys quietly in
(06:16):
their ears. And I was right there with the other
mom that I was with, and we were talking and
the boys as this man was whispering in their ear,
and they were giggling, and so whatever he was saying
was funny, but it did strike me as odd, on
why is he leaning over and whispering. So I did
ask him if if he was going to turn the
alligator on. See it was winter or it was April,
(06:38):
but it was snowing that day and we all had
on winter coats and boots, and he had on short
sleeves and blue jeans, so I thought that he worked there,
and so I asked him if he was going to
turn the alliator on, and he said, you know, kind
of just mumbled to me. No, you know, I don't
know what he said, just no, no, kind of mumbles.
I said, well, is it okay if we stand here?
(06:59):
And he's like, oh, yeah, that's okay that you stand here,
just like it reassured me. He was nice, he looked
kind It wasn't. I didn't. I had a warning when
I went into the mall, but I did not have
a warning standing there talking to him.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Carrie, you just mentioned you had a signal a warning
when you first went into the mall.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
What happened?
Speaker 7 (07:19):
Yeah, I just it was driving into that parking ramp.
I just had an overwhelming whelming sense that I could
be in danger, something weird could happen today. It was
just like some odd feeling that I didn't feel comfortable with.
So I just prayed, and I asked God to go
before us to keep us safe everywhere we go. I
asked for angels to come with us to guard us
(07:41):
and keep us safe. I also led the blood of
Jesus around us, because I know the enemy can't cross
the blood line. So I just led blood of Jesus.
And then I thought, okay, let's go. We're gonna go
have a fun day. And so I had the warning
enough to pray that keep us safe today. But when
I was talking to the man, I believe it or not,
did not feel like I better get away. He was
(08:03):
reassuring me. I felt like, I honestly feel like the
enemy was working through this man and he was reassuring me,
and I was feeling comfortable because he was tricking me.
But I did not know that.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It's amazing to me, Carrie, that you felt that premonition
and you actually acted on it by praying. You know
now my twins take themselves to school, which I really
miss driving them to school. But the last thing they
would hear would be a prayer over them every morning
as they got out of the minivan to go to school. Yes,
(08:38):
and I can just imagine you pulling into that parking
ramp and getting that feeling. And you know a lot
of people pooh pooh feelings, and that's completely erroneous because
our feelings are hunches, premonitions, so to speak.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Are based on thousands of thousands of year years of evolution.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Something tips us off, or is in your case, you
believe it was a higher, a more divine warning.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And I'm thinking about.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
What you said, Carrie, that the man was talking to
the boys and they were giggling.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Listen, everybody.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
I ran down and found the first officer I saw
the entire time. My concern was for.
Speaker 8 (09:23):
Landing whispering so the moms can't hear. The man, who
is not an employee, has previously thought, tells the boys,
if you don't get off this rock, I'm going to
throw you off. The boys nervously giggle. When the man
reaches around, Will grabs land in and throws the five
year old over the third floor railing.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Oh my stars, that original sound was from our friends
at kare you're standing there with the other mom.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
What did you observe, Carrie?
Speaker 7 (09:57):
Yeah, actually Will was right next to the man, and
he went around Will and grabbed Land and took him
under the armpits and threw him over the balcony. And
it all happened so fast, like we were not that
far from the balcony, probably I don't know ten feet.
He ran that fast and through him before I could
even understand what just happened. As soon as he did it, though,
(10:18):
I screamed, no, devil, take your hands off. I'm somebody
just threw my baby. Went screaming down the escalator stairs
at somebody through my baby. I just went as fast
as I could do.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
You down the third floor.
Speaker 7 (10:30):
Carry, Yes, I was on the third floor.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
We're showing an image now inside Mall of America, and
you see the bottom the ground floor, the next floor,
but then the escalator takes you up even higher. Looked
all the way up near that glass roof to the
third floor, that is from where this child was thrown
(11:00):
to that hard, hard bass floor.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
You start screaming and do what.
Speaker 7 (11:09):
Carrie ran as fast as I can, yelling somebody through
my baby, somebody through my baby, everybody, come help pray.
As soon as I got down there, I saw him
or I didn't see him, and I yelled, where is he?
There wasn't many people there, like I said, it wasn't
open yet, and one woman pointed where he was and
I ran and picked him up, and she goes, no,
(11:29):
you have to put him down. Please put him down.
You know, my first instinct was to pick him up.
I don't remember what he looked like or anything. I
just saw him and scooped him up. And right behind
me two nurses happened to be on the second level
waiting for a st door to open. Like I was,
I am brooding, landing on to live and take a breath.
So they were giving him CPR and they said, we
got a heart beat, and I said, yes, we got
(11:51):
a heart beat. Everybody pray. And I looked up and
there's three levels of people all looking over the balcony
and I just looked up there and I said, everybody pray.
He has a heartbeat. And then they said he just
took a breath, and I said, yes, he took a breath.
Everybody pray, and I just begged everyone one around staring
to pray. This is what we're doing. We're praying, and
we're routing landing On to live and not die. And
that's what we were doing.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
As the five year old is amazed by the rainforest cafe,
the perpetrator closes in. He leans down whispers something to
the little boy. Seconds later, the mall will erupt in chaos.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Joining me is Landon's mom, who describes running down an
escalator begging people around her to pray for her son.
As she reaches land and picks him up and is
still praying that he is alive. But at that moment,
as she is praying, Landon is dead with no heartbeat.
(12:52):
The guy, Miss Hoffman, that threw your son over the
balcony on the third of Mall of America, had a
reputation in the mall of throwing things off the balcony,
throwing things into restaurants, Yet he was still there.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
He had not been banned from the all.
Speaker 7 (13:18):
I mean, I don't know what the whole background is
on that. I never wanted anything to do with this guy.
I know that he had issues there, and I think
he was banned. I think there was a lot at
the time that you could only be banned for up
to six months, maybe one year, and so I mean
that has been changed now, but I don't know. I
don't like to go down that role, that hole of
(13:40):
all the things I have to do with this man,
because he is no part of our life.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
You know what, You're so wise, Carrie.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
I try not to think about the guy that murdered
my fiance because it's wasted energy. Yeah, it's completely wasted
energy and time and can take me down a dark hole.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
That's try. It's very difficult to get out of. Listen
to this.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
Everybody falling forty feet to the ground, Landen Hoffman breaks
his skull, facial bones, both arms, and a leg, as
well as a life threatening injury to his vina kVA
running to his heart. Two nurses who work in a
cardiac unit happen to be right there when it happened
and are able to perform CPR on the little boy.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Joining us right now.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Is a renowned medical examiner, the Chief Medical Examiner District
two Medical Examiner's Office, State of Florida. He is a
forensic pathologist, a toxicologist, and a neuro pathologist. Wow doctor
Thomas Coin, thank you for being with us. I'm hearing
a lot of medical jargon if you can make some
(14:46):
sense of it for us. We're told landon falls forty
feet and remember age five, age five, If that makes
any difference, fall's.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Forty feet is thrown. He didn't fall thrown forty.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Feet to a hard surface, the bottom floor of Mall
of America. It looks like it's tile, which is probably
on top of cement. Forty feet to the ground, breaks
the skull, facial bones, both arms, and a leg. And
(15:21):
this is the thing I don't understand. Life threatening injury
to Veena Kava running to his heart, what does that mean?
Speaker 6 (15:33):
Sure, those are types of injuries that I will see
in high impact car collisions or injuries where the body
absorbs a lot of force. And the vein we remember
from school, the blood is carried in our body through
arteries and veins. Arteries carry the blood away from our
heart to oliver organs, and the veins deliver the blood
(15:53):
back to our heart from oliver organs. The vein of
keva is the largest vein that we have in our body,
and it courses from our pelvic region back up to
the heart. And so all of the blood that comes
from our feet and our legs comes together into the
vena cava, and as the vina cable travels back up
to the heart along the spine, all of the organs
in our body send veins that communicate with the vena cava,
(16:16):
allowing all that blood to come back to our art
to get rid of the carbon dioxide and get new oxygen.
The vinagable, like I said, is a large vessel. And
so when the body absorbs a large amount of force,
whether it be a car car crash, or in this
case a fall from great height at impact, the body
will absorb that force, will get stretched and become deformed.
(16:38):
And as it becomes deformed, those blood vessels are stretched
beyond their normal elastic capacity. You know, like a rubber band,
if you stretch it too far, it will break. Well,
the same thing can happen to a blood vessel, and
sometimes what happens is the inner layer of that blood
vessel may tear, allowing blood to escape. That inner layer.
In between the layers of the blood vessels can slowly
(17:01):
grow and expand, and so in this case that injury
may not have been recognized at first. They probably realized
he wasn't bleeding into any of his body cavities. They
attended to all of his injuries, and that other small
injury in that vein could have slowly grown over time,
being a threat to rupture at some point, especially if
he started to do normal activity. Again, that we see
(17:23):
that sometimes a vascular dissection is called. And again when
I see in the vein, very often high impact collisions,
I see it from an abdominal trauma and in this case,
more likely when he fell and impacted the ground.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Okay, So the vena cava runs directly to the heart.
Speaker 6 (17:44):
Yes, it will go right into the bottom of the heart,
and that's where all of the blood draining from our
lower half and our Torso we'll get back to the heart.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
We always hear about the femeral artery or the jugular
or the carotid artery. You don't hear a lot about
the vena kava. I guess because it's protected by the ribcage.
Speaker 6 (18:09):
Correct, it's protected by the body, so all the organs
set over it. And again, you very rarely see an
injury like that unless you have extreme force, and in
this case, of course, rare to see this a person survive.
But nevertheless, side did that fall from three floors is
enough force to cause this kind of injury deep inside
the body?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
You know, this child was thrown from the third level.
It's way up there near the skylights of the Mall
of America. I mean, that's scary and I'm curious.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
He I've learned.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Was attended to almost immediately by two nurses who happened
to be at the mall that race down and start
resuscitating him or trying to. How is it different to
resuscitate a child versus an adult.
Speaker 6 (19:04):
Well, it may it may be a little easier in
the sense that you know, a child isn't compensating for
underlying heart disease. Right, so many of us, as we
get to be in our forties and fifties, we will
accumulate heart disease over time, and that may make the
heart less responsive to resuscitation. A child is much younger.
But also the injuries themselves may not be as severe
(19:27):
in a child as opposed to an older adult who
may have more internal bleeding, just because of the fact
that their masses greater. They're not as plastic or pliable,
so their ability to withstand such a force will be
less and less, say a much smaller child, but in
particular a child. Children also tend to be a little
more resistant to loss of oxygen. So you know the
(19:50):
classic story of a child who drowns and then is
resuscitated even you know, maybe up to thirty minutes later,
and is able to still regain normal brain function. So
it may very well be that they have a little
more plastic ability than adults do, and so sometimes in
children it's a little bit easier to get that return
of normal spontaneous circulation without having long term frametime.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Crime stories With Nancy Grace, you know, doctor Coyne, I
have handled cases where I found in the autopsy a
lot of bruising to the body and was told by
the medical examiner like yourself, that that bruising occurred during CPR.
(20:41):
This child already suffered multiple broken bones. How do you
resuscitate the child when he is covered in breaks and injuries?
Speaker 6 (20:51):
Sure, I mean it's a ton of war. You're trying
to provide resuscitation or enough force to the chest, because
mind you, when you're when you're doing CPR, what you're
effectively doing is compressing the body to allow the body
to squeeze the heart so you can pump blood through
the body. So you want to do it with enough
force that actually allows the ribs above to compress down
(21:14):
upon the heart to allow blood to flow. And so
you you take into consideration that some injuries may and
very well occur in adults who are less plastic right there,
their ribs aren't. Children have much more cartilage. As we
get older, are our bones. The cartilage will turn into bone.
You'll also have more mineralization or calcium deposits in your bones,
so they're a little more easy to break. So in adults,
(21:37):
I see very commonly rib fractures, external fractures in persons
who administer CPR, But in children they're more plastic, so
you're less likely to get a rib fracture. But nevertheless,
at the end of the day, we're trying to save
this person's life. So you you take into consideration, yes,
I'm going to have some injury, but more importantly, can
I get this person's heart restarted, Can I get blood
(21:58):
flow back to their body? Then I can worry about
treating all of those injuries.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
You know, doctor Coyn, I've never heard a victim referred
to as plastic, more plastic, less plastic.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
What are you saying?
Speaker 6 (22:09):
Sure, so you know I'm more pliable? Right, So again children,
and I'm sure we all are not growing up. I
was able to do a split and do things I
certainly cannot do in m twenties and definitely not now
in my fifteen.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
I bet you could our bodies.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
Our bodies. I wouldn't want to try it. But our bodies,
especially the ligaments, the tendons, all to the cartilaginous parts.
They're much more pliable as a child. As we get older,
as they begin to ossify or form bone, or accumulate
minerals from aging calcification or calcium in particular, your bones
become less pliable. Your ligaments become less pliable. That's why
it's much more easier to tear a ligament as we
(22:45):
get older. So children have more pliability. So when they
fall and their bodies to form on impact. Right, as
you can imagine, if a bone, let's say, is being
impact that that bone will bend due to the force,
and it will be up to the point upon which
it can't bend anymore because it's not elastic, so it
will fracture. A child's bone in certain areas have more cartilage,
(23:08):
so it's more pliable, so it has more give, if
you will, so maybe less likely to fracture than say
a person who's in their twenties or thirties. So that's
what I mean by more plastic. They're a little more pliable,
but also plastic in terms of their ability to respond
to injury. They're still growing, you know, they're healthy. Their organs,
you know, have no plaques or disease that we have
(23:31):
that makes us harder to compensate for injury. A child
is much more readily capable of compensating for an injury
than an adult.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Doctor coin, How does a fall cause brain injury or
a crash?
Speaker 1 (23:43):
I mean, I know that they do, But how does
that happen?
Speaker 2 (23:47):
What happens to your brain that leaves you with a
permanent brain injury?
Speaker 6 (23:52):
Sure, there's two things really that happen. Well, let's first
break it down. There's primary injury, and the primary injury
is the effect of the actual impact itself. So there's
the direct impact. When your head strikes a hard object
or a heard object strikes your head, that will number
one cause the force of that object to be transmitted
(24:13):
throughout your brain, and so your brain will literally move
within your skull, you know, side to side, front to back,
slamming into the skull itself. The brain is very soft,
like agella mold, so it's very easy for the brain
to bruise and get injured. That's the first thing, the
direct injury. The second thing is the brain will also
rotate around a central axis, so as you imagine if
(24:36):
you kick a soccer ball, as that soccer ball is kicked,
it will roll, it will spin. The brain wants to
spin too after impact, and it will spin or rotate
within the actual skull itself. That rotation stretches all of
those tiny nerve fibers, and if it stretches it too far,
they can tear. And so critically, if the bottom of
(24:57):
our brain, where our brain stem sits, it's the part
of our brain that you know, allows us to breathe
without having to think about it. We're not sitting here
thinking about breathing in breathing out. If fibers in those
areas are torn or injured, that person can stop breathing
and they can die up all of a sudden. So
brain injury does those two things primarily, but it's a
secondary injury that's more dangerous, and that's the swelling that occurs,
(25:18):
because you know, I'm sure we've all gotten punched in
our arm before. You may see the initial redness or
a little bit of bruising, but over time swelling occurs,
and sometimes you can get a significant amount of swelling.
Looks like I have a softball on your arm, right.
That same thing happens to our brain. But the problem
is the brain is within the skull and it has
nowhere to go. So as the swelling occurs, pressure builds up,
(25:39):
and that pressure is directed back on the brain itself,
which can physically compress the brain structures, destroying them or
more importantly, prevent blood flow to those areas because blood
vessels are compressible.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
You know what, whoa whoa white white Oay. Remember I'm
just a g I'm trying to keep up with you,
but you're saying, okay.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
So the brain is hurt like a bruise, and it
starts to.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Swell, and then there's nowhere for it to go, like
your arm can go out. I remember every time I
got an allergy shot, my arms swell up like two
of them like an egg. And my dad would actually
I'd look over at him, he be driving me home
from the allergy doctor, and there'd be tears going in
his eyes because he'll look over and see my arms
swelling up.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
I'm trying to think about how that connects to the brain.
The brain tries to swell up and it hits the
skull and has nowhere to go, so it starts.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Damaging the brain, killing the brain cells because they're up
against the skull.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Is that right, Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
The pressure, Okay, so that's why they put a shut,
a hole in the head.
Speaker 6 (26:45):
A shut, or they'll literally out of the skull to
relieve the pressure. Yet, so that secondary part is all
times most dangerous. And imagine this, if it's so severe,
if the pressure inside the brain or skulls me it
is so high, if it's above our blood pressure, no
blood can flow into the head or into the brain,
(27:06):
and that's where things get really dangerous. And so managing
that part, the swelling of the brain, is the most
difficult part after an initial injury, and oftentimes that's what
is the fatal injury, is a secondary injury or swelling.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Doctor coryn, are you married, Yes?
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah, I'm not shopping, Okay, I've only raised one. I
don't want to start all over with another one.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
I'm just curious.
Speaker 9 (27:34):
You're so.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Brilliant, But I bet when you go home your life
is like, did you take out the trash?
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Okay? Do you know?
Speaker 6 (27:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (27:44):
My kids always I'm literally hanging on every word you're saying.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
I'm just trying to take it all in. Okay, let
me ask you this.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
We talked about the resuscitation when I have reason to
believe when mom ran running down the escalator, you know
how sharp those things are, the steps. She's running, screaming
to all three levels, pray, pray, pray.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
When she gets to.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Her son, Doctor cron, I think he was dead. I
think he was dead at that moment. How can that
be good? Way?
Speaker 6 (28:31):
Well, you know death? How he labeled death. Usually we
say when a heart stops speeding, right, But and his
heart made very well been stopped. But the brain tissue
is still alive until it exhausts all of its energy,
all of its oxygen. And so although he may not
(28:51):
have been conscious and may not have been able to
remember those events, his brain made very well still been functioning,
may have been receptive to his mother's voice, to certain
sounds around him, It's hard to know because the problem
always is in these cases is our inability to remember.
I use this bad analogy of a person who goes
out drinking at nighttime they have you know, they go
(29:12):
to parties, and then they wake up the next morning
and they can't remember a thing. It isn't that the
events never occurred the night before, It's just that the
alcohol prevented them from being able to remember the events.
So in this way, you know, the injury is preventing
you from encoding those memories. So if you ask a
person days or you know, a long time after, hey,
do you remember the events? Do you remember your mother
speaking to you? You may not be able to remember anything,
(29:34):
but it doesn't mean that at that moment you couldn't
hear her voice, couldn't hear her prayers, And who knows,
maybe that gave him enough strength to keep on going.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
But how do you go from being dead on the
floor of them all of America to being alive again?
I mean, I think you're going to give me some
medical explanation, but no, no, it was like a miracle
to me.
Speaker 6 (30:00):
It is. It's a miracle that those two nurses were
there to initiate CPR, because the real key was just
getting blood flow back to the brain. Was to allow
blood flow get back to the brain and the vital
organs so he could then be transported to the hospital
and have all those injuries you attended to. That was
the miracle, really, it was making sure that his heart,
(30:23):
although it stopped temporarily, was restarted and life can go on.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
One last thing, doctor Coin, the mom kept talking to
him even when he had been he was dead, his
heart not beating, and we've I've always heard this anecdotally.
I don't have any statistics to tell me this, because
no one apparently believes the near death or after life experiences.
(30:51):
But we have been told over and over and over
that people can hear. It's the last sense to leave
you that people can hear even after they're declare did
and they can when they're resuscitated, they can recall what.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Was being said around them. Is there any way that
Landon heard his mother.
Speaker 6 (31:15):
It's quite possible. Yeah, because as I mentioned, although the
heart stopped beating, the brain tissue is still all those
cells throughout our brain, all those nerve fibers are still
there potentially active, and so if those little fibers in
his ears are hearing sounds, they are transmitting those signals
to his brain. Again, he may not have been conscious
or may not be able to remember those those signals,
(31:35):
but I'm assuming it's quite possible that he was still
receiving those signals without warning.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
A twenty four year old man lunges at a toddler
in one of the fanciest malls in America, lifting the
boy up off his feet and hurling over a thirty
nine foot balcony. The child swams onto the tile below.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Miss Hofflan, I know that you were already out trying
to get in to that ambulance at the time. Standers
by grabbed this guy, tackled him and hailed him as
he tried to escape. So I want to go back
to your story, Carrie, what happened when you got to
the hospital.
Speaker 7 (32:14):
When we get to the hospital, he goes right into
a life saving room where it's just a big empty room,
and you go in there and all the doctor they
told me this was a miracle. At all the doctors
that they needed to be there were there, the bone doctor,
the brain doctor, you know, the pickewed surgeon, everybody who
they needed to be there were there, and they wheeled
(32:34):
them into the room and they all started working on
his body immediately, five or six doctors all doing different
setting his bones, stopping the bleed, removing his spleen, and
I got to go right in there with him. I
couldn't see, so I stood up on a chair and
I just was praying that the God would use those
doctors to put him back together. And I was praying
(32:54):
out loud, which I don't normally do, and they let
me do that. At one point they did say, okay,
everybody quiet, because it was just chaos and they're trying
to stop all the major injuries. And they said, if
you don't need to be talking, please don't be talking.
But I considered myself need to be talking at that
time because I wanted landin to hear me and I
wanted him to fight to be alive, and so they
(33:15):
did let me. I wasn't doing it annoying or rude.
I was trying to let Land and hear me praying
to stay alive. And that's where we were. That's that
life saving room where they've just put them back together.
Then he goes across the hall to the MRI to
see the extent of his brain injury. So that's what
you do right when you get there.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
After that initial response and as you call it, the
life saving room, what happened after that to Landon?
Speaker 7 (33:44):
Then they rush him across the hall to give him
an MRI to see what extent he has of his
brain injury, what are going to be the consequences, and
right from there they rush him upstairs to surgery where
they can do not just like saving surgery, just every
other surgery he's going to need, which was the entire
day of surgeries.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Guys, this is the beginning of a very long journey.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Listen Landed Hoffmann has surgeries for his broken arms, a
broken leg, and skull fractures, and his spleen was removed.
He remains in intensive care for four months. He undergoes
more than a dozen surgeries and even broke his leg
for a second time during his rehab while doctors and
nurses are trying to get him out of bed and walking.
The break reveals his ban a cava vain running to
his heart is barely hanging on. Had he tried to
(34:32):
walk on it, he would have died. During his recovery.
A GoFundMe page is launched for medical.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Possible crime stores with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Miss Hoffin explained to me what happened when he tried
to stand up. This is after over a dozen surgeries.
He even broke his leg for a second time during rehab.
But the break itself was a miracle of sorts because
it revealed his vena cava vein running to his heart
(35:11):
was barely hanging on and had he been able to walk,
they were trying to get him up and walking, he
would have died.
Speaker 7 (35:21):
Yes, we didn't know the Vina Keva parked until the
day till four months later. He probably broke his leg
the second time two months in and we were in
there for four months and so after you know, six
to eight weeks after your that's how long it takes
for a bone to heal. And he had broken it
from the initial fall. After it was healed, that's where
(35:42):
he was able to stand up and do rehab to
get it too, you know, strong again, and that's when
he broke it a second time. He was on so
much pain medicine and he didn't know standing up that
he was just so fragile and his body was working
so hard to heal everything else, I just think it
broke a second time. But at that when we found
that out, we were so devastated because we wanted to
(36:04):
get out of bed. We were in bed for six
to eight weeks at that time, just feeling like, okay,
can we just stand up? Can we move it all?
We just couldn't because how fragile he was. And so
when we could finally stand up and then the learning
broke it a second time, we were devastated. And that's
where I was asking God, why why do we have
to stay in bed now another six to eight weeks?
(36:24):
Not only that, now he has to have a more
permanent cast. And so I could choose between an external
fix stator where they take screws three screws or four
screws down his leg, take it from his skin and
drill it into his bone to hold it into place.
I could do that, or I could do a hard
cast all the way from his foot all the way
up to his chest, and then he would really not
(36:46):
be able to move. Plus he couldn't get out of
bed to use the bathroom, so he was I have
to change him all the time, and having that big, long,
that big hard cast from his foot to his chest
was not an option for me, so we went with
the external fix stator, which gave him more movement. But
it was it was awful, It was painful, it was torture.
I hated that. We found out at the end of
(37:08):
our stay four months later that the vienna keeva was
the main issue that the doctors could not figure out.
It was closing to the size of a pinhole. And
that's when we learned good thing he broke his leg
a second time because had he not, he would have
been up walking around and that could have been devastating.
And so I knew there was a reason we broke
the leg because I thought God did not take us
(37:28):
through this miracle and keep him alive to go through
even more pain like this, just petty pain. So I
knew there was a reason, but I didn't know why.
And now I know why.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
As we mentioned, the recovery has been such a long road.
Speaker 8 (37:45):
Recovery is a long journey for the entire family. Gary
watches yes her son's personality changes. Where Landon had always
been a sweet and kind child, injury to the frontal
love of his brain causes his personality to shift, and
he became angry and mean. The injury causes his personality
to switch back to sweet and kind, only to change
(38:05):
again to angry and mean.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Carrie, I had a relative very close to me suffer
a traumatic brain injury after a crash and their personality
did change. Yeah, tell me what happened with Landa's personality change?
Speaker 7 (38:29):
You know, when I found out in the hospital halfway
through or whatever that this was going to be, I
knew I was going to get him back walking and talking.
I was going to have landed back. But they did
tell me he will have a slight personality change, we
don't know the extent of it, and that he will
be more impulsive as he grows up, because that's what
he injured, is his front alone. They also told me
that it was a good thing. If you could injure
(38:50):
any part of your brain, this is the part you
would want to injure, because people brain surgeons can remove
this part of your can still be alive and have
a good quality of life. And so at the time
when they told me that, I didn't care that he
was going to have a different personality or be more impulsive.
I was going to get him back. I was just
so thankful. But everything they told me when we did
(39:12):
get home and try to go to kindergarten two weeks
after we get home from the hospital, is when I
saw that he was in and out of being nice
and mean, and his eyes were like bulging out and
then and then and then I would just have to
teach him land and we don't do that. This is
not we don't act like that. He just had to
learn all over how to be kind again. And six
(39:36):
this we're now going on six years, and I do
think Landin is totally back to the kid he was
supposed to be. He is loving life, he is so kind,
so loving, loves people. He's back now, but it took
a long time to learn that, and I would say
at least three years of that in and out of mean.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
I want you to hear Landing for yourself.
Speaker 9 (40:00):
Lessens land Hi, they are one week but I.
Speaker 11 (40:16):
Yes, yes, now, a right, yes.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
That is Landing with a feeding tube in his nose,
singing a beloved song.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Jesus loves me. This I know. And here is more
from land.
Speaker 12 (40:45):
My name is Landon. I'm nine years old. I'm the
guy that got thrown at the third story at Mall
of America And that was the part where God came
in and helped as a miracle that I'm alive. God
healed all the parts in my body.
Speaker 6 (41:03):
I'm perfect.
Speaker 12 (41:06):
I would say that I want people to know my
story because I want them to believe in God and
go to heaven.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
That is a reference at Eagle Brook Church. That's amazing, Carrie,
that is amazing. Tell me about Landon now.
Speaker 7 (41:31):
He has a walking, talking miracle. He loves life. He
does not This story is not something sad. He is
not scared of people. He's not scared to be in public.
He knows that he is the boy that God used
to show the world a miracle, and he is proud
of it. And he will tell all of his friends,
(41:52):
do you believe in God? I hope people believe in
God because if you don't, you won't go to heaven
with me. And I want you to go to heaven.
And if you don't believe, it happens me. I have
all these scars and God saved me. And that's who
he is. He's just walking around showing everybody what a
miracle he is. That is the power of God. That's
who our God is today and Landon is living proof
that God is real, and he is powerful and he
(42:16):
listens when you call on him.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
Here is more from Landon.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
When your friends ask you about what happened to you,
what do you tell them.
Speaker 12 (42:24):
I tell him that it was me that got thrown
and they say really, and and I show them everything
on me.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
That from our friends at Good Morning America. You know,
I just want to see Landon speaking one more time.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Let's watch.
Speaker 12 (42:43):
My name is Landon and I'm nine years old. I'm
the guy that got thrown the third story at the
Mall of America. And that was the part where God
came in and helped. There's a miracle that I'm alive.
God healed all the my book.
Speaker 6 (43:01):
I'm perfect.
Speaker 12 (43:04):
I would say that I want people to know my
story because I want them to believe in God and
go to heaven.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
This is a miracle from our friends at Eagle Brook Church.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Carrie, you told me earlier.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Off air that you felt Christ with you particularly at
one moment.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Could you describe that.
Speaker 7 (43:35):
Just when I was in that hospital room, I was
held in a perfect peace the entire time. I mean
I intentionally didn't have TV on or outside noise of
the world. I asked people not to tell me what
was going on out there, because I wanted to be
close to God, and I was honestly held at perfect
(43:56):
peace that entire four months. I knew he was there,
I felt him there. It was just I was never scared.
Doctors were coming in and out, and some of them
would be maybe throwing telling me to throw in the towel.
I even had one told me I can't maintain this
warrior status forever. But I did not waiver. I felt
(44:17):
God's presence in that hospital room the entire four months,
and he kept me in that perfect peace, and I
felt Landon was going to be okay, and he was
never going to die, in my opinion.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
An incredible story of a miracle. Carrie describes it all
in her book Miracle at the Mall. Carrie, thank you
for telling us your story, land and story and giving
us your witness.
Speaker 7 (44:44):
Thank you so much for having me on the show.
I so appreciate being a part of this.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
We remember an American hero, Deputy share of Sidney Carter,
killed in a line of duty, survived by her parents.
Grieving parents Annette and Jerry, American hero Sheriff Sydney Carter.
Nancy Grace signing off goodbye friend,
Host
Nancy Grace
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