A Minnesota Tale of Good over Evil

“I embraced the realization that this scar, rather than a mark of hurt, would symbolize the miraculous healing God bestowed upon Landen. It would show the world that miracles happen and serve as a testament to what God accomplished, overpowering the harm that man inflicted.”

– Miracle at the Mall

Two moral opposites are at work in the battle between good and evil.  Good can be found in peaceful interactions with others, personal integrity in words and actions, and goodwill towards all.  On the other hand, evil is often reflected in cruelty, deception, and corruption.  Overall, evil is the enemy of good. 

In Kari Hoffmann’s 2025 book, “Miracle at the Mall”, Hoffmann, a Minnesota mom, recounts the story of her son Landen’s recovery from an attempted murder event at the Mall of America in Minneapolis in 2019.  In a tale of good versus evil, what one man meant for harm, a cadre of others united for good.  Showing how miracles can and do happen, Landen received dozens of life-saving surgeries and treatments from a team of doctors and nurses as he spent 127 days in a children’s hospital and rehabilitation center.  Miraculously, a series of MRIs would show Landen’s brain injury was no different from that of a child who fell off a bike. 

Landen’s 39-foot fall from the third floor onto a concrete surface would result in shattered wrists, hands, elbows, a broken femur, fractured facial bones, and brain damage, his primary injury at the front of the head.  Intubated with breathing tubes and drains, Landen’s mother journaled his recovery that included internal leaks, infections, along with both progress and setbacks. 

A recurring theme during Landen’s ordeal was how the right people were miraculously available at the right time.  On the day of Landen’s fall, two Children’s Hospital nurses were on site to assist him after finding him lifeless without a heartbeat, on the first floor of the mall.  Then, once Landen arrived at the hospital, the trauma team was already on site and ready to attend to his needs. 

What would become a worldwide news event, well wishes and prayers for a complete recovery would flood the family on Landen’s behalf.  A subsequent GoFundMe campaign would raise more than 1 million dollars for Landen’s care, for bills that would eventually total nearly 2 million dollars.  Minnesota sports teams and sports heroes would join the global citizens in rallying for Landen’s recovery.

A family of faith, Landen’s mom asked doctors to use the word “perfect” when describing his condition to align with their optimism and faith.  One setback, a rebroken femur, would put Landen back in bed for 6-8 weeks before a life-threatening vena cava tear was discovered.  Without the added rest, he may not have survived. 

The perpetrator, a troubled man with a history of criminal conduct, was previously banned from the mall premises for throwing store property over the third-floor railing.  Landen’s mother, approaching the man that terrible day in 2019, spoke to him, thinking he was a mall employee, before he abruptly picked up and tossed Landen over the same railing.  Landen’s family would ironically discover that his name was the same word they selected as a safe code assigned to visitors at Children’s Hospital, Emmanuel, chosen for its meaning, “God is with us”.  Upon his sentencing, Landen’s mother provided a victim's impact statement, full of grace and forgiveness, where she noted that while he had listened to the devil (evil), she was witnessing her son’s miraculous healing (good). 

Thankfully, the story would have a happy ending.  Two weeks after returning home from his more than four-month ordeal, Landen began kindergarten with other children his age.  As he began his miraculous recovery to restore health and well-being, he would receive a full recovery, proving the power of prayer and faith. 

Theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas once said that good can exist without evil, whereas evil cannot exist without good. God did not create evil, but allows us free will that may result in evil acts. The only way to win the battle of good over evil is to strive every day with the goodness that is within us to create a positive impact to counteract the influence of evil.