![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/cmg\/F632FHPKGE3T7KJAUX4KLJEVHE.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania Governor Arson Cody Balmer, accused of setting a fire at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s official residence, leaves Dauphin County Courthouse on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025 in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo\/Matt Slocum) (Matt Slocum\/AP)<\/p>\n
He entered pleas on charges including: attempted murder, terrorism, 22 counts of arson, aggravated arson, burglary, aggravated assault of the governor, 21 counts of reckless endangerment and loitering. <\/p>\n
The 22 and 21 counts are in relation to the number of people at the mansion at the time, including children and two state troopers, WHP<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n Balmer received a 25 to 50-year prison sentence, the AP<\/a> reported. He will not be eligible for parole until 2050. <\/p>\n No one was hurt in the attack, but it did do millions of dollars in damage to the state\u2019s executive residence. The home is owned by the state and repairs are being done to fix the damage.<\/p>\n The Dauphin County District Attorney released surveillance video<\/a> of the attack, WPVI<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n Balmer told police he had planned to attack the governor with a small sledgehammer if he had come across Shapiro on the night of April 13. Balmer climbed a fence, broke into the southern wing of the home, and entered a room that is used to entertain and display art. <\/p>\n The attack happened during the Passover weekend. The governor is Jewish, but his religion had nothing to do with Balmer\u2019s plans, he told the AP <\/a>in May in a letter. <\/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 When asked in a video interview about his motive, he did not disclose it to the AP<\/a>, who had asked why he targeted Shapiro. Balmer responded, \u201cI\u2019m not going to answer that.\u201d<\/p>\n But when Balmer called 911 and confessed, he allegedly told the dispatcher that the governor, \u201cneeds to know that he \u2018will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,’ ” WPVI<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n \u00a92025 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRISBURG, Pa. \u2014 A Pennsylvania man who set fire to the Pennsylvania governor\u2019s mansion as the governor\u2019s family…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1607,28,30,29,1608],"class_list":{"0":"post-1629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-bestof","9":"tag-pennsylvania","10":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","11":"tag-pennsylvania-news","12":"tag-topix"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629","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=1629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}