It's been three years since the unthinkable happened to Kari Hoffmann, a mom in Minnesota who took her 5-year-old son and his friend out for a day of shopping.
While they were in Mall of America, a stranger approached the two young boys. Moments later, the man grabbed Hoffmann's son and threw him over a third-floor balcony.
The incident made national headlines while Hoffmann's son, Landen, fought to recover from life-threatening injuries, including broken arms, a broken leg, and skull fractures.
Years after the incident, Hoffmann and her son spoke out about the traumatic experience and the long recovery journey that has followed.
"I was frozen in time until I was able to speak, and now is the time that is right in our lives where we've done a lotta healing, where it's time to move forward with the story of the miracle of Landen," she said in an interview with Good Morning America.
"We were just looking at the alligator at the Rainforest Café, and a stranger came up and was whispering to these two little boys. And I thought that he was gonna turn this alligator on for them," she recalled.
"He snatched [Landen] and ran. And I was just frozen… It happened so fast. I screamed, 'No!' after he was already thrown."
The horrific event had happened before the mall was even opened, but luckily, there were nurses on the scene who ran to help him.
A crowd started to form around them.
"I don't care who was looking. If they were looking, I asked them to pray," she said. "He's got a heartbeat. He was breathing. We got in the ambulance, and right before they shut the door, he opened his eyes for a second."
"Listening to him breathing with the machine's beeping was the best sound I've ever heard in my life," she added. "Because that meant he was alive."
Her son, now 8 years old, spent four months recovering in the hospital.
Luckily, he made it out just in time to start his first day of kindergarten.
The man responsible for the crime pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder and was sentenced to 19 years in prison for the attack.
Hoffmann told the GMA reporter that she forgave the attacker a while ago, because she believed it would save her son.
"It's a decision that you have to make so that God can do what he needs to do in your life … and that was to save Landen."
