Windows were already beginning to glow with firelight when Balmer smashed another window and infiltrated the house. He headed to the heart of the home, where Shapiro, his wife and their children slept with more than a dozen overnight guests.<\/p>\n
Unable to break through a set of locked doors at the entrance of the sleeping quarters, Balmer ignited another Molotov cocktail in the decorated dining room. Hours before, the sleeping houseguests had gathered there to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover.<\/p>\n
Nothing could have prepared the guests to be evacuated by state troopers in the middle of the night. They fled as flames consumed the home, blackening the walls and transforming chandeliers, furniture and walls into ashen carcasses. No one inside was harmed.<\/p>\n
The next morning, Shapiro stood in front of the blown-out windows of the home. His voice swelled to a near yell as he insisted, \u201cIf this individual was trying to deter me from doing my job as your governor, rest assured I will try to work even harder than I was just yesterday for the people of Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n
But in the weeks and months since, the governor said he has been privately grappling with the gravity of the targeted attack on his family in an age of rising political violence<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve carried with me this enormous sense of guilt \u2013 guilt that doing this job that I love so much has put our children\u2019s lives at risk,\u201d Shapiro said Tuesday.<\/p>\n Attacks on American leaders and activists across the political spectrum have become a sobering reality, including the recent assassination<\/a> of a conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the killing of a Democratic Minnesota lawmaker<\/a> and her husband, and the bludgeoning<\/a> of Rep. Nancy Pelosi\u2019s husband in their home. Last year, a gunman shot Donald Trump <\/a>at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n Extensive fire damage to the Pennsylvania Governor’s Mansion and Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence is seen during a press conference on April 13, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. – Matthew Hatcher\/Getty Images<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Balmer pleaded guilty<\/a> to the attempted murder of Shapiro and entered pleas to terrorism, 22 counts of arson, aggravated arson, burglary, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. When asked why he did it, Balmer cited Israel\u2019s military actions in Gaza, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n Shapiro gave an emotional public statement Tuesday alongside his wife, state First Lady Lori Shapiro, explaining that the attack has left lasting scars on his family.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest, Lori and I have struggled over the last six months to try and make sense of all of this, and the hardest part has been trying to explain it to our four children and to our nieces and nephews,\u201d the governor said.<\/p>\n As parents, Shapiro said, they have struggled to explain why someone would want to harm their family.<\/p>\n \u201cCandidly, I don\u2019t know that I\u2019ve been able to give them the right answers,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cI don\u2019t know that I\u2019ve been able to ease our children\u2019s worries.\u201d<\/p>\n Video shows Balmer running and kicking the double doors leading to the governor\u2019s private family quarters. Though the doors did not yield, Shapiro has not been able to escape the image \u2013 or the thought of the blunt sledgehammer Balmer had intended to strike him with.<\/p>\n \u201cThose videos are chilling. They\u2019ve been haunting me for months,\u201d Shapiro said. He added, \u201cHow were they able to get so far into the governor\u2019s residence, the place that was supposed to be the safest place we could possibly be?\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking on CNN\u2019s \u201cThe Lead\u201d later Tuesday, Shapiro sat at his desk directly across from those doors, one of many reminders of the family\u2019s close encounter.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is hard for us, as we walk through these halls, to know that he was in here as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u2018Scars will remain\u2019<\/p>\n As leaders from across the state, country and world have reached out to Shapiro in recent months to offer support, their conversations have inevitably turned to the growing fear that they or their loved ones could be the next target.<\/p>\n Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro speaks during a press conference outside of the Governor’s Mansion after a portion of the property was damaged in an arson fire on April 13, 2025, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. – Matthew Hatcher\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve talked to people who are thinking about running for office who have said they don\u2019t want to because they don\u2019t want to put their families at risk,\u201d Shapiro said at the news conference. \u201cThese are good people who just want to serve, want to do right by their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Shapiro and his wife have always been aware that serving in public office has risks.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I have to tell you that before this attack, those risks just felt very theoretical to me \u2013 something that might happen elsewhere to someone else, but couldn\u2019t happen here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSadly, this made it all real.\u201d<\/p>\n Political violence in the US is at a tipping point, the governor told CNN, calling on national leaders across the political spectrum to step forward with solutions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need all leaders to speak and act with moral clarity, to call it out, to condemn it, and to try and take down the temperature, so we don\u2019t end up in situations like this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The governor noted Trump has consistently blamed Democrats for fueling the growing trend, even though data and real-life examples have consistently debunked<\/a> this claim.<\/p>\n \u201cHe should know better. He should want to bring down the temperature, and yet he\u2019s been cherry-picking which violence he wants to condemn,\u201d Shapiro told CNN\u2019s Jake Tapper. \u201cTo suggest that the responsibility of political violence exists on just one side of the aisle or another is absolutely wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.<\/p>\n Though Shapiro told CNN his family is \u201cnot willing to live in fear,\u201d the attack is bound to have a lasting psychological impact.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will forever be changed by this,\u201d Shapiro said earlier Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that time will heal, but the scars will remain.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Extensive](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/e16b049bd83b1e3e93b191a131553274.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Pennsylvania](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/44e1475e32ea04f7618a6af01ca4454b.jpeg\"\/)
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