Shapiro and members of his family had to be awakened and evacuated, but no one was injured. The multiple arson and endangerment charges reflected the number of people in the residence at the time, including the governor\u2019s family, guests and state troopers.<\/p>\n
The fire was set hours after they celebrated the Jewish holiday of Passover with a Seder meal in the governor\u2019s residence. Prosecutors played video clips that showed Molotov cocktails going off and a figure inside and outside the residence around the time of the attack.<\/p>\n
Judge Deborah Curcillo called the video \u201chorrific\u201d and \u201cvery frightening\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Josh](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AP25282537068680-1760454580.jpg\")
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was the target of the arson attack, according to prosecutors [Matt Rourke\/AP Photo]<\/p>\n
Balmer told police he planned to beat Shapiro with a small sledgehammer if he had encountered him after breaking into the building, according to court documents. Balmer turned himself in the next afternoon to face charges of attempted homicide, \u201cterrorism\u201d, aggravated arson and aggravated assault.<\/p>\n
Police say Balmer broke in through the southern wing of the residence, into a room often used to entertain crowds and display art. Investigators recovered two broken glass beer bottles containing petrol. The fire charred walls, tables, buffet serving dishes, plates and a piano. Window panes and brick around doors and windows were also damaged.<\/p>\n
Shapiro\u2019s Jewish faith and the attack during the Passover weekend raised questions about Balmer\u2019s motivation, but Balmer told The Associated Press in a May letter from jail that religion had not been a factor in his decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can be Jewish, Muslim, or a purple people eater for all I care and as long as he leaves me and mine alone,\u201d Balmer wrote.<\/p>\n
He said in a brief June 9 video interview from Camp Hill State Prison that he did think beforehand about whether children might be injured.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes anyone ever consider children?\u201d Balmer said in June. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem that way. I sure as hell did. I\u2019m glad no one got hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked why he felt Shapiro had somehow done him wrong, Balmer replied: \u201cI\u2019m not going to answer that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Balmer\u2019s mother said days after his arrest that she had tried to get him assistance for mental health issues, but \u201cnobody would help\u201d. Court proceedings had been delayed while he received mental health treatment, his lawyer has said.<\/p>\n
At a court hearing a few days after the fire, Balmer told a judge he was an unemployed welder with no income or savings and \u201ca lot of children\u201d.<\/p>\n
The residence, built in 1968, did not have sprinklers. Work to fix the damage and to bolster its security features continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cody Balmer told police he had planned to attack Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[46,31,744,139,28,30,29,50,1479,66,1480],"class_list":["post-1476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-government","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-politics","tag-the-far-right","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}