The man charged with setting fire to the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion staged the attack because he believed Gov. Josh Shapiro’s stance on the war in Gaza was leading to the deaths of Palestinians, according to a police search warrant made public on Wednesday.
After the attack on the governor’s residence in Harrisburg, Pa., the suspect, Cody A. Balmer, identified himself on a 911 call and said that Mr. Shapiro, who is Jewish, “needs to know that he ‘will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,’” according to the search warrant.
“Balmer continues saying he needs to stop having my friends killed, and ‘our people have been put through too much by that monster,’” an apparent reference to Mr. Shapiro, though it was not spelled out in the warrant.
Mr. Balmer, who had been treated for mental illness and was facing a separate charge of having assaulted his family in an earlier case, said at the end of the call: “You know where to find me. I’m not hiding and I will confess to everything that I’ve done.”
In an interview with the police after he turned himself in, Mr. Balmer “admitted to harboring hatred” of Mr. Shapiro and said that he would have “beaten him with his hammer” had he run into him on the night of the attack at the mansion, according to an affidavit filed in the case.
With the search warrant, the Pennsylvania State Police seized four smartphones, a laptop and an external hard drive. Investigators are combing through Mr. Balmer’s writing and notes “that contain any of the following: the name of Josh Shapiro; reference to Palestine, Gaza, Israel or the current conflict in Gaza,” the warrant said.
Mr. Balmer’s social media accounts suggested deep cynicism but little in the way of a particular ideology. Some posts expressed a libertarian bent bordering on anarchism, while others praised violence. His Facebook posts included rants about big pharma, women and the government.
While several posts slammed former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., there was little sign of loyalty to any political party. The day of the 2020 election, Mr. Balmer wrote: “If your guy won today fantastic have a good time…. within reason. If your guy didn’t go on with life for now.”
Mr. Balmer, 38, has been charged with attempted murder and other offenses in connection with the attack, which left two rooms of the mansion badly burned. No one was injured in the attack.
Shortly before the attack, Mr. Shapiro had entertained dozens of friends for dinner to celebrate the first night of Passover, a Jewish holiday.
He addressed the attack at a news conference on Wednesday in Hershey, Pa., calling for an end to political violence — a plea he had made in the last year after an assassination attempt against President Trump in Butler, Pa., and the arrest in Altoona, Pa., in the killing of a health care executive.
“This kind of violence has no place in our society regardless of what motivates it,” Mr. Shapiro said in his first public comments since Sunday morning.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said she had spoken to Mr. Shapiro and offered assistance to local investigators. But speaking to reporters on Wednesday, she stopped short of calling the arson an act of domestic terrorism — after repeatedly using that label to describe attacks on Tesla cars.
The Department of Justice has not ruled out doing so as the investigation proceeds, according to a senior law enforcement official with knowledge of the situation.
Mr. Shapiro has largely taken a middle-ground approach on the war in Gaza that prompted protests across the country last year.
He condemned the University of Pennsylvania’s response to protests and perceived antisemitic behavior on campus, but also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling him “a destructive force.”
Mr. Shapiro said he and his wife had spent the last several days trying to help their four children process their emotions after the attack. On Thursday, the Shapiro family and the celebrity chef Robert Irvine plan to serve lunch to the Harrisburg firefighters who put out the fire.
Glenn Thrush contributed reporting.
The post Man Who Set Fire to Shapiro’s Mansion Cited Treatment of Palestinians, Police Say appeared first on New York Times.
