HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania — Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) stepped up to the podium to address the nation on Sunday afternoon, 12 hours after a man set fire to the governor’s residence while he and his family slept, forcing them to evacuate in the middle of the night.
The damage behind him inside the governor’s residence along Front Street was significant. The blackened and broken windows were visible as he started to speak, a reminder to the Pennsylvania governor just how lucky he and his family were to have been ushered out of harm’s way.
Shapiro was visibly shaken as he began to describe what he had to endure with his family when a state trooper banged on his door just after 2 a.m. He woke his wife and children, family members who were staying with them, and their two dogs, quickly ushering them to safety from the arsonist attack.
Shapiro has always handled the responsibility of governing with the nimbleness of an athlete — whether as the state’s attorney general handling a grand jury investigation into the Catholic Church or as the governor reopening I-95 12 days after it collapsed.
But this was different. This was family, and they had been targeted.
“Last night, we experienced an attack not just on our family but on the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania here at the Governor’s Residence. I want to thank the Pennsylvania State Police for safely evacuating our family, for their bravery last evening, and for their careful leadership of this investigation,” he said, giving praise to the Harrisburg firefighters and their chief, as well as the U.S. Capitol Police.
Shapiro also thanked the FBI and his federal partners for their assistance.
“I spoke a couple of hours ago with Director Kash Patel of the FBI. He promised all of the resources of the federal government. He was extremely kind and courteous and thoughtful in his conversation with me, and I thanked him and the women and men of the FBI and the president of the United States for their support,” he said.
Just seven months earlier, Shapiro was on the scene at the Butler Farm Show hours after President Donald Trump was shot, and he assessed the scene and oversaw aspects of the law enforcement response to the assassination attempt that day.
Shapiro recounted the hundreds of calls and texts he had received from people all across the commonwealth and the country, and his voice rose with emotion: “I want you all to know that your prayers lift us up, and in this moment of darkness, we are choosing to see light, and we appreciate the light that you have shined upon us.”
His voice then rose with anger: “We do know that this attack was targeted. We don’t know the person’s specific motive yet, but we do know a few truths. First, this type of violence is not OK. This kind of violence is becoming far too common in our society, and I don’t give a damn if it’s coming from one particular side or the other directed at one particular party or another or one particular person or another. It is not OK, and it has to stop.”
Shapiro, who is a practicing Jew, said, “No one will deter me or my family or any Pennsylvanian from celebrating their faith openly or proudly,” pointing out the attack happened on the first night of Passover, one of the holiest Jewish holidays, the observance of which he had posted on X just hours before the attack. “From the Shapiro family’s Seder table to yours, happy Passover and Chag Pesach Sameach!” he said.
Shapiro stressed we all have a responsibility to be better. “This individual was trying to deter me from doing my job as your governor. Rest assured, I will find a way to work even harder than I was just yesterday for the good people of Pennsylvania.”
Law enforcement officers explained that the events at the residence were jarring. The intruder breached the property long enough to break into the residence, set the fire, and jump the same fence he used to enter.
The governor’s residence, which is located on a full block on Front Street about a mile from the state Capitol, was built in 1968 and is often open to the public for tours.
During the press briefing, law enforcement officers announced that 38-year-old Cody Balmer had been taken into custody, saying they had connected the local man to the arson attack on the governor’s residence. By Sunday evening, he had been arrested, although no affidavit had been made public by publication.
Balmer allegedly carried homemade devices and evaded the governor’s security detail, according to state police.
“While they were searching, he attacked at the residence, broke in, and set the fires, so that was all playing out over a period of several minutes,” Lt. Col. George Bivens said at the news conference. “And again, troopers were actively searching for him at the time.”
SUSPECT ARRESTED AFTER ARSON ATTACK ON SHAPIRO’S MANSION
Bivens said a security review will be done to prevent this from ever happening again.
“He clearly had a plan. He was very methodical,” Bivens said. “When I said that he was in the residence, he was inside for less than a minute. It all happened very quickly, and he was back out.”
