Man pleads guilty in arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence

The man accused of the April arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence was sentenced Tuesday to decades in prison after pleading guilty to several charges.

Cody A. Balmer, 38, pleaded guilty to attempted murder, aggravated arson, 22 counts of arson, burglary and other offenses, according to the Dauphin County Prosecutor’s Office. Under the terms of the plea agreement, he was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Prosecutors accused Balmer of breaking into and setting fire to the governor’s residence in Harrisburg on April 13, the second day of Passover. Shapiro, who is Jewish, was celebrating a Passover Seder at his home the night before the attack, officials said.

Security footage released by the district attorney’s office appears to show Balmer scaling the property’s fence, approaching the home and smashing one of its windows with a hammer. Balmer then threw a Molotov cocktail inside, setting the house on fire, officials said in a news release.

The footage then appears to show Balmer breaking a second window and entering the house. Once inside, Balmer began punching two doors, including a door that led to where the governor’s family and guests were sleeping, but was unable to get through it, officials said.

Before fleeing, Balmer deployed a second Molotov cocktail in the dining room, starting a second fire in the house, officials said. Prosecutors previously said the residence suffered “significant damage.”

The Democratic governor, first lady Lori Shapiro, three of their children, 15 overnight guests — including other members of the governor’s family — and two Pennsylvania State Police officers were all inside the home when the fire broke out early in the morning, according to the district attorney’s office. All were safely evacuated.

“It’s hard for me to stand before you today and say the words ‘attempted murder’ when it’s your own life, to know that someone tried to kill me,” Shapiro said during a news conference Tuesday at the Pennsylvania State Capitol complex, alongside his wife.

Shapiro said he had “struggled over the last six months trying to make sense of it all” and explaining the incident to his children.

“I took with me this enormous feeling of guilt,” he added. “The guilt that doing this job that I love so much has put the lives of our children in danger.”

An attorney for Balmer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

About 12 hours after the April attack, Balmer turned himself in to Pennsylvania State Police and admitted to “harboring hatred toward Governor Shapiro,” according to authorities.

The probable cause affidavit says Balmer said he allegedly beat the governor with his hammer when he was asked during the police interview what he would do if he came face to face with Shapiro.

Balmer suggested he was upset by Gov. Josh Shapiro’s stance on the war in Gaza, according to the prosecutor’s office. Shapiro strongly condemned the rise of anti-Semitism in the United States following the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, particularly during some pro-Palestinian protests during the two-year war.

Politicians on both sides widely condemned the attack, one of several high-profile acts of political violence to hit the United States in recent years. In June, Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman, her husband and their dog were shot and killed in their home, in what authorities described as “politically motivated” killings.

On Tuesday, Shapiro challenged Americans not to become “numb” to political violence.

“Before this attack, these risks seemed very theoretical to me, something that could happen to someone else somewhere else, but couldn’t happen here,” Shapiro said. “Unfortunately, this made it all real.”