Teen OK after fall from mall’s balcony

Published 9:51 am Monday, June 30, 2014

MINNEAPOLIS — Bloomington police said a teen who fell from a Mall of America second-floor balcony while attempting a handstand has suffered only minor injuries.

Deputy police Chief Rick Hart said witnesses saw the 17-year-old attempting a handstand on the upper-level balcony Saturday afternoon when he lost his balance and fell.

He was taken to a hospital, but mall spokesman Dan Jasper said he seems to have escaped serious injury.

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Hart said the boy was at the mall with his father, who was elsewhere at the time.

Hart doesn’t think the teen will be cited although he suspects the boy learned a painful lesson. He said the boy’s acrobatic attempt “probably wasn’t his smartest move.”

In 2003, a man who was sitting on an escalator handrail died after he fell two stories.