A man accused of throwing a 5-year-old boy off the third-floor balcony of Minnesota’s iconic Mall of America last week told police he was furious that women repeatedly rejected him, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday.

Emmanuel Aranda, a 24-year-old man from Minneapolis, has been charged with attempted first-degree murder after confessing to tossing the child, whom he didn’t know, off the nearly 40-foot-high platform, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office announced Monday.

The victim, named Landen, was critically hurt in the fall at the Bloomington mall ― the largest retail shopping mall in the U.S and a major tourist attraction. He suffered multiple fractured bones in his arms and legs, as well as massive head trauma, medical personnel told police, according to the complaint.
Landen’s mother told police that they had been standing outside the mall’s Rainforest Cafe on April 12 when Aranda approached them. She said Aranda came very close to them so she asked if he wanted them to move out of his way.

That’s when Aranda grabbed Landen, without warning, and threw him off the balcony before running away, the boy’s mother and several other witnesses told police. Officers subsequently located Aranda on a light rail train in the mall and placed him under arrest.

Aranda quickly confessed to throwing the boy off the balcony and fleeing the scene, police said, according to the complaint. He allegedly said he planned to kill someone at the mall a day earlier but that it didn’t “work out.”

Aranda told police that he planned to kill an adult because they usually stand near the balcony but chose to attack the boy instead, according to the complaint. He repeatedly acknowledged that he planned to kill someone at the mall and knew what he was doing was wrong, police said.

Surveillance video from the mall shows Aranda looking over the balcony on the mall’s third floor several times before approaching Landen, the complaint stated.
Aranda told police he had been coming to the mall for several years, where he attempted to talk to women but was frequently rejected, according to the complaint. The rejection caused him to lash out and be aggressive, Aranda allegedly told police.

Aranda has been charged previously with throwing water in a woman’s face at the mall and destroying property, according to the complaint. He has a warrant out for his arrest from Illinois for assault.

He faces life in prison if convicted of attempted first-degree murder.

A GoFundMe page has raised over $670,000 toward Landen’s medical expenses and rehabilitation costs as of Tuesday morning.
Landen’s “soul is soft and gentle and instantly brings a smile to everybody he meets,” according to the crowdfunding page, created by a friend of the victim’s family. “The family doesn’t know [the suspect] and are completely clueless as to why this monster would target their family with this heinous act of violence.”

Source: The Huffpost.

The death of two men, Emmanuel Nicks, aka, ‘Nisa and Abdullahi Maimatarba, in police custody over an alleged theft has sparked outrage in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.

Nicks was allegedly buried by policemen to cover up his death. Family members were said to have learnt about the demise of the 24-year-old through the record at the state specialist hospital mortuary three days after his passage.
Members of late Nicks’ family were said to have discovered that his corpse was deposited in the mortuary by the alleged killer cops.

The father of the deceased, Kaino, who demanded justice for his son, stated that the police authorities in the state were conspiring to shield a police officer, Ahmed Suleiman and his accomplices, who allegedly deposited the corpse in the mortuary.
He claimed that the police were attempting to frame three vigilante men, who were in police custody, for the crime.

The men reportedly said they handed Emmanuel to the police alive after he was arrested with a jerry can of diesel near a telecommunication mast at Wurocheke, in Yola.

The second victim of police killing, Maimatarba, a father of five, died at the state specialist hospital after he was reportedly brutalised by policemen.
Maimatarba was arrested by the police at his residence at about 1am and taken to the Doubeli Police Station, according to his wife and mother, who spoke to journalists.

The deceased’s widow, who alleged that her husband was tortured to death stated, “The police came to our home at about 1am to arrest my husband. They started clubbing him on the head, disregarding my pleas to allow him to wear his trousers as he was in shorts. His boxers also got turn while they were manhandling him.”
The deceased’s mother, Hussaina Maimatarba claimed the police took her son to the intensive care unit of the state specialist hospital after he went into a coma.
The report of Maimatarba’s death outraged some youths in Doubeli area, who protested over the incident on Monday.

Chanting ‘one death too many,’ the protesters attempted to march on the Doubeli Police Station but were prevented by riot policemen and community leaders who prevailed on them.
The Adamawa State Police command spokesman, SP Othman Abubakar, however, disputed claims that the force had buried Emmanuel’s remains.

He said, “The police don’t bury corpses, it’s either you did not get your information correctly because the protocol is that the police would inform the relatives who will then take the corpse of the deceased for burial.”

Punch.

Officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have apprehended Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, a dismissed judge of the Federal High Court, after corruption charges against her were struck out.

Her arrest took place on the premises of an Ikeja High Court, Lagos, on Tuesday.

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