A Harrisburg man will face charges for setting fire to the governor's home in Pennsylvania.
13 April (Reuters) - At a press conference held at Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's house in Harrisburg on Sunday, state officials announced that a 38-year-old man was in arrest and will be charged with aggravated arson and attempted homicide for starting a fire at Shapiro's home overnight.
According to Pennsylvania police officials, the suspect, Cody Balmer of Harrisburg, whose motive is still unknown, slid over a fence surrounding the property with handmade incendiary devices and managed to elude state troopers long enough to enter the house, burn it down, and then flee. Shortly before Sunday's news conference, he was taken into custody.
Around two in the morning, Shapiro and his family were evacuated by state police knocking on their bedroom doors while local firefighters put out the fire. Although portions of the building had burn marks, no one was hurt.
At the press conference, Shapiro, a Democrat who is considered a contender for his party's 2028 presidential ticket, claimed that FBI Director Kash Patel had promised him "all the resources of the federal government" to look into the attack when they spoke a few hours before.
Hours after Shapiro shared a picture of his family's "seder" table on the first night of the Jewish holiday of Passover—which is about moving "from slavery into freedom," according to Shapiro—the house was set on fire.
He vowed to carry on working for Pennsylvania fearlessly on Sunday, saying, "I refuse to be imprisoned by the bondage that someone attempts to place on me by attacking us as they did here last night." His family still intended to have a second seder on Sunday night, Shapiro continued.
In response to a question about whether the incident might have been a hate crime, Shapiro stated that he would wait for the results of investigations by Pennsylvania's district attorney and federal officials.
According to Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Lieutenant Christopher Paris, a "multifaceted review in terms of security measures and the actual timing of how it happened" would be conducted.
