Warrant: Arsonist targeted Penn. governor over his ‘plans for the Palestinians’
Cody Balmer, alleged perpetrator of attack on Josh Shapiro’s residence on Passover eve, reportedly tells police he went after him for ‘having my friends killed’
A man suspected of setting fire to the home of Pennsylvania’s Jewish governor, Josh Shapiro, on the eve of Passover said he chose to attack the residence and its occupant because of the elected official’s supposed “plans” for the Palestinians, a search warrant revealed on Wednesday.
The revelation, first reported by PennLive, further indicated that the suspect was motivated by antisemitism, given that Shapiro, as a state governor, has no control over US foreign policy.
According to the warrant suspect Cody Balmer, a 38-year-old resident of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, called 911 after carrying out the attack. On the phone, he told officers that Shapiro needed to know that he, Balmer, “will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people.”
The warrant also quoted Balmer as having said that Shapiro needs to “stop having my friends killed” and “our people have been put through too much by that monster,” adding that he appeared to be reading off a script during the 911 call.
“You all know where to find me. I’m not hiding, and I will confess to everything that I have done,” Balmer said in the call to police about an hour after the attack.
State police said in the warrant that Balmer targeted Shapiro “based upon perceived injustices to the people of Palestine” and because of Shapiro’s Jewish faith.
They said, however, that they have not yet determined whether to charge Balmer with “ethnic intimidation.” He already faces more than 100 years in prison for the incident.
When Shapiro was being vetted as a potential US vice presidential candidate, he faced significant criticism from far-left members of the Democratic Party over his views on Israel, even though they were to the left of other contenders who weren’t Jewish.
Some progressives, in the name of protesting the war in Gaza, dubbed Shapiro “Genocide Josh.”
Suspect is mentally unstable, family says
Balmer has been described by authorities and family members as mentally unstable, off his medication and harboring negative feelings about Democrats and other political issues at the time of the attack.
After his arrest, he reportedly stated that he intended to kill Shapiro. His mother told police she had tried to have him hospitalized two days before the incident, but that police determined at that time he did not pose a violent threat.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi condemned the attack as “absolutely horrific” and added, “We have been praying for Josh, for his family. Those photos, it was horrible. I firmly believe that they wanted to kill him.”
She declined to name the attack as an act of domestic terrorism but said federal authorities are assisting in the investigation.
FBI Director Kash Patel called Shapiro in the wake of the incident, while US President Donald Trump separately described the suspect as “probably just a whack job.”
Attack prompts security assessment
An independent expert will review security at Shapiro’s official residence in light of the attack, state police said Wednesday.
The search warrant for Balmer said the arson suspect scaled a nearly 7-foot-high (2-meter-high) security fence, eluded police, smashed a window with a hammer and tossed a lit beer bottle filled with gasoline into the piano room.
Then, he broke a second window, climbed inside the state dining room and lit a second Molotov cocktail before kicking open a door and fleeing, the warrant said.
The fire caused significant damage and forced Shapiro, his family and guests, including other relatives, to evacuate the building early Sunday.
The residence, built in 1968, did not have sprinklers, and the damage could be in the millions of dollars, Harrisburg Fire Chief Brian Enterline said.
Shapiro said he, his wife, their four children and another family had celebrated Passover on Saturday night in the same room.
They were awakened by state troopers pounding on their doors at about 2 a.m. Firefighters extinguished the fire and no one was injured.
The Times of Israel Community.