Pennsylvania governor's mansion arson attack suspect says treatment of Palestinians was motive, police say

By Rich McKay

The man charged with setting fire to the Pennsylvania governor's mansion while the governor and his family were there sleeping told police he did it because of the governor's stance on the war in Gaza, according to a search warrant released on Wednesday.

According to the warrant and a police affidavit, Cody Balmer called 911 to confess to the crimes that took place early on Sunday. The warrant said Balmer told police he believed Governor Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, was encouraging the war in Gaza and that he, "needs to stop having my friends killed," and "our people have been put through too much by that monster."

Balmer 38, of Penbrook Borough, Pennsylvania, has been charged with attempted murder, arson, burglary and terrorism intended to coerce "the conduct of a government," among other felonies. A police affidavit says he also intended to attack the governor with a hammer.

It was the latest episode of political violence directed at a U.S. elected official and bore similarities to the October 2022 home invasion of the San Francisco residence of Nancy Pelosi, then the Democratic speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. The intruder beat her husband Paul Pelosi with a hammer.

According to court records, the governor and his family were asleep at the residence in the state capital of Harrisburg at the time of the attack about 2 a.m. on Sunday. Police woke him and his family and helped them escape the fire with their pets.

Shapiro said his family and guests held a seder on Saturday to celebrate the first night of Passover, a major Jewish holiday, in the dining room of the mansion.

Balmer told police he scaled a fence, smashed the window of the mansion's piano room with a hammer and threw a Molotov cocktail inside, police said in the search warrant and affidavit. Balmer then smashed his way inside and ignited the dining room before fleeing, according to the police account.

Shapiro, at a press conference on Wednesday, said that he and his wife tried to be good parents to their four children throughout this ordeal.

"Nothing he could do would deter me from doing my job as governor," Shapiro said of Balmer. "Nothing he could do would deter me from proudly and openly practicing my faith."