A young boy is fighting for his life after a man allegedly pushed or threw him over the third-floor balcony of a shopping mall for no apparent reason.
Witnesses at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota said the five-year-old fell nearly 12 metres before the man immediately ran away.
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While members of the public performed first aid on the boy, the boy's mother was heard screaming at those around her to pray for him.
"I heard the mother screaming, 'Please pray for my kid, please pray for my son, everyone please pray,'" onlooker Brian Johnson told CBS News.
"I talked to some people who saw what happened and they told me that a guy threw, literally picked up, a kid and threw him over the third-floor bannister."
Police say the child is still alive, but has received life-threatening injuries.
"The child is still alive… he's still receiving care… the family and this child are in our thoughts and prayers," Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts said in a media address.
After quickly tracking the man in question down and arresting him, police discovered he had been banned from the same mall 2015 after throwing objects off the upper level balcony.
Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda, 24, is now being held on suspicion of attempted homicide but the motivation behind the attack is still a mystery.
"[Through] our investigative work and witnesses that we've spoken to, we feel confident saying that the suspect threw the child off of the third floor. But as to why he did that, is still something we're looking into and trying to figure out," Potts said.
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