This image provided by Commonwealth Media Services shows damage after a fire at the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion while Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family slept inside on Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Harrisburg, Pa. (Commonwealth Media Services via AP)
The district attorney prosecuting a man accused of setting fire to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s official residence said Friday that investigators are assessing whether religious or political bias could explain why he expressed “hatred” for the Democratic leader.
Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo said authorities are trying to flesh out a statement by police in the arrest affidavit that Cody Balmer “admitted to harboring hatred towards” Shapiro, who is Jewish.
Balmer, who denied having a mental illness despite his family’s comments to the contrary, is accused of breaking into the residence in Harrisburg in the dead of night early Sunday and igniting two beer bottles containing gasoline, causing extensive damage but no injuries.
“We’re continuing to look at that and how long the animus had existed in his mind,” Chardo told The Associated Press.
When Balmer called 911 less than an hour after the fire, he said “Governor Josh Shapiro needs to know that Cody Balmer will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,” according to the 911 recording released Friday by Dauphin County.
Balmer also said Shapiro “needs to leave my family alone,” mentioned his own daughters and baselessly accused Shapiro of “having my friends killed” in recent weeks, without offering any further explanation of his claims. “Our people have been put through too much by that monster,” he said.
The governor has been publicly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and Israel’s military action in Gaza, but also has backed the country’s right to defend itself from Hamas.
Balmer didn’t mention Israel or Gaza in the 911 call, but told the dispatcher he was “tired of offering extensions of peace.”
“I only want to be able to provide for my children,” he said. “I should not be taken to these extremes. It’s not fair. I wish no harm onto anyone.”
Balmer ended by saying police knew where he was, he was not hiding and he would confess to “everything that I had done.”
Chardo said violence isn’t the way to resolve religious or political differences.
“Attacking the governor’s residence with fire just, you know, exacerbates the nature of the offense,” the prosecutor said.
The governor said he’ll leave it to prosecutors to determine what prompted the attack. “It’s not for me to answer that,” Shapiro said.
Chardo said the suspect’s electronics were being examined. Warrants to search several smartphones, a laptop computer and a hard drive said they would look for any references to Shapiro, Israel, Palestinians or Gaza. But Chardo stopped short of saying whether he thinks antisemitism, religious bias or a political motive were factors.
A charge of ethnic intimidation under Pennsylvania’s hate crime law, which serves to make a sentence more severe, wouldn’t affect Balmer’s sentence if he’s convicted, because he’s already charged with first-degree felonies that carry the most serious penalties, Chardo said.
“If religious bias was part of it, was a motive, that is certainly relevant,” Chardo said. “We’re not dismissing that, but it would go to the sentencing within the statutory maximum.”
Balmer has been jailed since turning himself in, on charges that include attempted homicide, arson, assault and burglary. He has not entered a plea.
Family members have said the 38-year-old unemployed welder lives with his parents, has a history of mental illness and has at times not taken medication for bipolar disorder.
Before he walked to state police headquarters to surrender Sunday afternoon, he had twice approached police in neighboring Penbrook but wasn’t taken into custody, and they had no countywide notice to be on the lookout for him, Pennlive reported. Officers who ran his name through a database found no reason to detain him, and didn’t connect the dots because he talked about his previous mental health treatment and assault case but not about the fire, Penbrook’s police chief told the outlet.
An ex-girlfriend also called a state police tip line twice Sunday to report Balmer had confessed, but no officers arrived at Balmer’s home to check, Pennlive reported. Balmer later turned himself in at Pennsylvania State Police headquarters, more than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from his home.
Balmer’s court-appointed lawyers may seek to delay Wednesday’s preliminary hearing so the court can determine if he’s competent to stand trial.
“The allegations, if true, demonstrate the devastating consequences of severe mental illness,” Dauphin County public defender Mary Klatt said.
Balmer told a judge on Monday that he doesn’t have a mental illness.
Chardo said any competency review would focus whether Balmer is currently capable of aiding in his own defense, as opposed to a potential insanity claim that would hinge on the defendant’s mental health at the time of the crimes.
“It would be the burden on the defense to demonstrate that he is not” able to help in his defense, Chardo said. Evaluating him now might make sense, Chardo said, because if the issue gets raised at trial it will be harder to look back and determine if he had previously been mentally competent.
“Better to evaluate at the time,” Chardo said.
Police affidavits say Balmer was asked what he might have done had he encountered Shapiro while in the residence — and that he said he would have hit the governor with a sledgehammer.
State police said Friday they hired a former state police commissioner, Jeffrey Miller, to conduct an independent security review. Miller and his team are expected to begin interviews and visit the site next week.
Police have alleged Balmer climbed over a tall iron security fence, eluded officers who became aware of the breach and broke windows to get inside as he set bottles of gasoline on fire in the rooms where Shapiro’s family had held a Passover Seder that night. State troopers roused the family at around 2 a.m. and led them to safety as the fire caused millions of dollars in damage.