(AFP) – US prosecutors charged a man on Monday with the attempted murder of Democratic heavyweight and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro after a weekend arson attack at his official residence, court filings showed. Cody Balmer, 38, who was charged with attempted criminal homicide along with seven other offenses—including terrorism affecting the government and prowling at nighttime—was denied bail. He told police he harbored “hatred towards Shapiro,” who is Jewish and earlier in the night had marked the first night of the Passover holiday with friends and family.
Shapiro has said he would not be intimidated in observing his faith following what prosecutors called a “homemade Molotov cocktails” attack. Asked what he would have done had he encountered Shapiro in the residence, Balmer told investigators he would “have beaten him with his hammer.” Shapiro, widely viewed as a potential 2028 presidential contender, was inside with his family when the fire broke out in a different part of the Georgian-style mansion in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, state police said.
“While the fire was successfully extinguished, it caused a significant amount of damage to a portion of the residence,” the force said in a statement. No casualties were reported. Shapiro said that he and his sleeping family were woken up by a police trooper who “banged on our door” at around 2:00 am local time (0600 GMT) and that they were evacuated from the building. “Thank God no one was injured and the fire was extinguished,” he said.
Speaking to reporters outside the residence, with fire damage visible behind him, Shapiro made a forceful appeal for an end to political violence. “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… it is not OK, and it has to stop,” he said.
Police said in charging documents released Monday that Balmer was captured on surveillance cameras climbing a perimeter fence, breaking a window and throwing a gasoline-filled Heineken beer bottle, before breaking another window, entering the residence, and igniting another bottle. He then fled the property.
– ‘Disgusting violence’ – An ex-lover of Balmer called police and reported that the alleged arsonist wanted to hand himself in, the criminal complaint alleges. Balmer then subsequently walked up to state police headquarters and told an officer he was responsible for the blaze. At a hearing, Balmer was arraigned before Judge Dale Klein and was denied bail, a court official said. He is next due in court on April 23.
Top Republican officials reacted to the attack Sunday, with US Attorney General Pam Bondi saying on X she was “deeply relieved that Governor Shapiro and his family are safe.” Vice President JD Vance called the attack “really disgusting violence” and said he hopes “whoever did it is brought swiftly to justice.” President Donald Trump, who survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania last year, called Shapiro’s assailant on Monday a “whack job,” adding that “certainly a thing like that can not be allowed to happen.”
The 51-year-old Shapiro was in the race to be Democrat Kamala Harris’s running mate in her ultimately unsuccessful US presidential bid—a position that instead went to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Shapiro, an assertive political centrist, was elected governor of Pennsylvania in 2022 when he faced off against a far-right candidate backed by Trump.
– Gregory WALTON
© 2024 AFP
