Hopkins Man Accused of First-Degree Assault in Beating of Grandmother

Sep 3

A Hopkins man is charged with first-degree assault after police say he brutally beat his grandmother late last week, leaving her with life-threatening injuries.

According to a criminal complaint, 56-year-old Nermin Mandal is accused of attacking his grandmother inside their apartment on Smetana Road on August 29.

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Police were called to the home after Mandal’s adult son stopped by to check on the pair and found the victim unconscious on the couch with her face covered in dried blood.

Responding officers reported finding her with severe swelling, facial lacerations, broken arms bent at unnatural angles and her eyes swollen shut. Flies were swarming around her as she laid moaning, the complaint states. She was taken to the hospital where doctors diagnosed her with a brain bleed, multiple facial fractures, a sternum fracture and other injuries. She was intubated and remains unconscious. Her chances of survival were described as uncertain as of the complaint filing.

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Mandal was found inside the apartment with blood on his hands and shirt. Police say he claimed his grandmother was an “alien” who killed his daughter and gave him his dead daughter’s heart to eat. His son told officers Mandal suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and appeared to be in a deep psychosis during the attack.

Mandal was arrested and booked into the Hennepin County Jail. A judge ordered him held on $150,000 bail with conditions including no contact with the victim, no possession of weapons, taking medication as prescribed and electronic home monitoring if released.

If convicted of first-degree assault resulting in great bodily harm, Mandal faces up to 20 years in prison and a $30,000 fine.

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