Suspect Arrested in Arson Attack on Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence
Pennsylvania State Police have arrested a Harrisburg man for the arson attack on Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family that sent them fleeing from the governor’s residence on the first night of Passover.
In the early hours of Sunday, April 13, 2025, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and his family were forced to evacuate their official residence in Harrisburg after an arsonist set fire to the building. The fire broke out around 2 a.m., prompting state police to alert the family. No injuries were reported, but the fire caused significant damage to a portion of the residence.
According to the New York Post, police have arrested a suspect:
Pennsylvania State Police have arrested a Harrisburg man for the arson attack on Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family that sent them fleeing from the governor’s residence on the first night of Passover.
Cody Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg, is expected to face charges of attempted murder, terrorism, aggravated arson, and aggravated assault against an enumerated person, authorities said.
Reuters had more context that the suspect had “homemade incendiary devices in his possession.”
The Governor got emotional during a press conference earlier saying:
“If he was trying to terrorize our family, our friends, the Jewish community, who joined us for a Passover Seder in that room last night, hear me on this: we celebrated our faith last night, proudly and in a few hours, we will celebrate our second Seder of Passover.”
At the press conference, you could see the extent of the damage to the Governor’s home:
Authorities in Pennsylvania have arrested and will soon be formally charging a 38-year-old man who conducted an arson attack on the Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence.
The man will be charged with attempted murder, terrorism, aggravated arson, and aggravated assault.… pic.twitter.com/ySzURnNCzH
— Yashar Ali
(@yashar) April 13, 2025
Extensive fire damage inside Pennsylvania Governor’s residence after arson attack overnight, seen here in a series of photos provided by @GovernorShapiro officers. pic.twitter.com/06CxpY3d79
— Steve Keeley (@KeeleyFox29) April 13, 2025
I am glad that the governor and his family are ok.
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Comments
Well… if the MSM press had declined to publicize the name you know it would have sounded Islamic. If they decline to post photos we’ll know he looks black. And if they decline to post his declared reasons we’ll know it’s because he’s anti-semetic.
No picture and a name like Cody? Trans is a possibility, too.
But just a bog-standard Jewhater is most likely, I suppose.
What are the chances that this guy is a student, grad student, or faculty member, affiliated with the Social Justice for Palestine movement or some other group advocating genocide against Israel/Jews?
Age 38? Prolly not a student. Faculty? Maybe. SJP–now you’re getting a lot warmer.
Cody’s facebook page is rather bland, nothing radical, most of his posts are local news storys in the harrisburg area.
His linkedin page only lists him as a welder which is common for a blue collar worker since linkedin isnt commonly used from blue collar type work.
2:1 odds….antisemetic
Would someone please explain to me what an “enumerated person” is, exactly? Do they mean a Jewish person, a state official or what exactly.
In Pennsylvania, enumerated persons are generally officials of some sort.
Judges, police officers, district attorneys, public defenders, teachers, and the like. There is a list of about 40 positions. Governor is on the list.
If they think this is because of his religion, they’ll charge Ethnic Intimidation.
Some states have special criminal charges if the victim is a listed / enumerated govt official. They regard attacks on police, certain elected or appointed office holders, or court officials as not just an attack on that person but an attack on the govt itself.
“Would someone please explain to me what an “enumerated person” is, exactly? Do they mean a Jewish person…”
Ah, yes — the Enumerati — one of the lesser-known world-controlling cabals.
I think they’re the ones with the space lasers.
And the chessboards, and the grains of wheat.
“Cody Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg…”
I was visiting liberal websites earlier today and was reliably informed that a guy named Donald Rush Goldwater McReagan would be arrested.
Well that was pretty quick.
Trans activist?
Leftists are crazed extremists.
Search for “Cody Balmer” in X. His life is over, but the news media which incites behavior like this will live on.
All this speculation about antisemitism, college stuff blah blah.
Maybe Occam’s Razor applies here: the guy is a sandwich shy of a picnic, nothing more and nothing less.
Yep. It is entirely possible this guy didn’t do it based on antisemitism but for other reasons. We shouldn’t jump on antisemitism as THE reason just yet… but we.shouldn’t rule it out either, instead we should apply common sense and wait 3-4 days for more info.
Some poster claimed he went nuts because his $240K home was foreclosed on and sold for $60K.
Didn’t vote for the Governor but no one should have any residents set on fire.
Do want to se a picture of the arsonist
No you don’t. He is a real word looking dude.
Bah wierd! weird! looking dude.
“If he was trying to terrorize our family, our friends, the Jewish community, who joined us for a Passover Seder in that room last night, hear me on this: we celebrated our faith last night, proudly and in a few hours, we will celebrate our second Seder of Passover.”
No Holocaust card left unplayed. Very counterproductive. It says we stick to our weird religion instead of we stick to rule of law. So, the message that goes out quietly is that Jews are not real Americans. Nobody cares about whatever holiday it is, none of which have any meaning. Pick instead something that everybody cares about.
The right response is that in a free society there are always some nuts and we slowly put them in prison.
“The right response is that in a free society there are always some nuts and we slowly put them in prison.”
I agree.
The rest of your comment, sir, is despicable. It is relevant if a Christian family home was attacked on Christmas or Easter, or a Muslim family during Ramadan, or a family celebrating Kwanzaa or any other religious holiday.
Fie on you, sir! Methinks you are a Jew hater.
The thing about alienation, in scholarly hands, is that it’s a creative resource. In particular alienation is the human condition in general – everybody is a Jew – and the way out is responsibility, in particular responsibility for the other guy. Which is why Palestinians get treated in Israeli hospitals, civilian deaths are minimized, etc. Judaism is more Christian that Christianity at bottom.
In non-scholarly hands it comes out the opposite, and essentially immoral.
Nah, I don’t think rhhardin is a Jew-hater. He’s constantly quoting some obscure Jewish philosophers. I think he’s got a problem with religion in general, and with the idea that religion is important to a lot of people. He’s also got a problem with nationalism or ethnic particularism of all kinds. He doesn’t like anything that emphasizes a person’s specific nationality, religion, or other identity marker, because he’d prefer such distinctions among men be allowed to fade away and be forgotten. In that sense he’s a lot like George Soros.
At least that’s my read of him.
Weird religion?
Yes, to the majority of Americans any religion that isn’t similar to any of the big Christian denominations is weird. Jews, Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons, Sikhs, they’re all weird. And in a sense he’s right, but only in a sense. For instance, I have been convinced for decades that had Michael and Lindy Chamberlain not been Seventh Day Adventists they would never have had to endure the legal persecution that they did.
BTW, the governor used the word if. So he wasn’t saying definitely that this was an attack on his religion, but if it was, he had something to say about it and he did. I don’t think he was playing the “but Im Jewish “ card” as the attack happened on Passover. Maybe you’d have a point if it had happened on any other day. I’m also not sure why you’d bother spending any part of your day Jew bashing; aren’t there more exciting things to do in this world. Get some fucking therapy!
As it happens I uploaded today, among ancient audio files on my HD, an Imus program devoted to Charlie Ward’s Bible Study Group remarks about the Jews killing Jesus. These basketball player remarks resulted in huge fights on WFAN among. sports talk hosts Imus, in the uploaded show, comes on the next day to set these hosts against each other again on the phone. You’ll find this amusing or not. The interesting thing is, at the end, the whole thing is settled by the scholarship of a rabbi/engineer at the station. The mob alienation vs scholarship.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUvdp0fsU0o
Where was the security?
Right there.
RTFA.
They saw him going over the fence (prob by remote camera) and were searching the grounds – but he was an A-hole With a Mission and had proceeded right to enter or B&E into the house with pre-prepared arson equipment. From the damage photos their quick response was the only reason the whole house wasn’t destroyed and possibly the whole family – kids and all – murdered.
Anyone other than a state governor with personally assigned security would likely have been killed or lost family. By the time the guards knew he was in the house the fire was already well started and evacuation was the best first action and response. Most folks don’t realize how fast and deadly a well-done (no pun) arson can be.
New info, he never entered the house as such – he used the hammer he hoped to kill the governor with instead to break several windows to toss in several heiniekin bottle Molotov cocktails he lit. Also, he was a crazy on meds, his mom had just tried calling 4 local Police departments trying to get someone to do a safety check since he was off his meds.
All this because he went to his ex gf to confess and asked her to turn him in to the police.
All too many not-so-sane folks left on their own with a med prescription think to themselves after the meds kick in – “hey I feel OK now, I guess I don’t need the meds anymore” – and stop taking them. Apparently he’s one of those.
Suspect gives off major Antifa vibes-
https://x.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1911632805718565179
Without question he falls into the Antifa/Anarchist political spectrum.
Also, the fact that Andy Ngo is digging into this is a tell. He’s done a great job of covering the leftist Antifa groups in detail over the years.
He looks lovely.
Doubt if MSM will view Cody quite as favorably as Luigi.
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