A 38-year-old man was arrested and will face charges of attempted homicide and aggravated criminal arson after setting fire to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence early Sunday morning (13), local authorities reported.
The suspect, identified as Cody Balmer from Harrisburg, jumped a fence around the property carrying homemade incendiary devices and evaded state police long enough to enter the residence, set the fire, and leave. He was arrested hours later late Sunday afternoon after turning himself in to police and confessing to the crime.
Police knocked on the doors of Shapiro and his family’s bedrooms around 2 a.m. to evacuate them while local firefighters extinguished the fire. No one was injured, although fire marks can be seen on parts of the house.
Shapiro, a Democrat seen as a potential candidate for his party’s presidential nomination in 2028, said at a press conference that FBI Director Kash Patel had spoken with him a few hours earlier and promised “all federal government resources” in the investigation of the attack.
“I refuse to fall into the trap that someone is trying to impose on me, attacking us as they did here last night,” he said on Sunday, promising to continue his work for Pennsylvania without fear.
The motive for the crime
Upon turning himself in, Balmer told police he siphoned gasoline from a lawnmower and poured it into beer bottles to make Molotov cocktails, which were thrown at the governor’s house, according to the affidavit.
Balmer admitted to “harboring hatred” for Shapiro and said that if Shapiro had found him inside the house, he would have hit the governor with his hammer, according to the affidavit.
He also said he knew it was possible that Shapiro and other people were home at the time he set the fire, according to the document.
Balmer’s arrest comes days before he was due in court for a guilty plea hearing in a separate case stemming from a 2023 assault charge, according to state court records.
In another case, Balmer pleaded guilty in 2016 to forgery and theft by deception, court documents show.
The destruction
The fire caused “significant damage” to the governor’s residence in Harrisburg, state police reported.
Walls and ceilings are burned, with floors covered in ashes and furniture destroyed, as photos show. There are remnants of the Easter dinner hosted by the governor on Saturday.
The Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence is a 2,700-square-meter Georgian-style building on the banks of the Susquehanna River that has housed eight governors and their families since its completion in 1968, according to the Pennsylvania government.
The first floor of the residence houses temporary and permanent art exhibitions.
Source: Reuters and CNN