HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Harrisburg man charged with the attempted homicide of Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family for setting three fires in the Pennsylvania governor’s residence this weekend turned himself in to state police on Sunday afternoon and admitted to “harboring a hatred” toward Shapiro, according to the criminal complaint.

Cody Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg, evaded police while on the property, breaking a window and throwing a Heineken beer bottle filled with gasoline into the piano room in a wing of the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg, according to the criminal complaint. He then went to the attached dining room, broke a window, entered the residence, and lit two more homemade “Molotov cocktails” before fleeing on foot, police said.

It’s unclear how state police, who have a 24/7 detail assigned to Shapiro and additional security at the governor’s residence, allowed Balmer to enter the property, start a fire, then break into the building and start two more fires before fleeing on foot without apprehension.

Balmer was taken to an area hospital “due to a medical event not connected to this incident nor his arrest,” police said Monday. Because of this, his arraignment was canceled and will be rescheduled.

According to the complaint, Balmer’s “ex-paramour” called police and said that Balmer had confessed to her, asking her to call police to turn him in. Balmer then appeared at state police headquarters in Harrisburg on Sunday afternoon to turn himself in, the complaint said.

Balmer told investigators he hated Shapiro and that if he found him at the property early Sunday morning, he would have “beaten him with a hammer” he had brought with him to break into the residence, according to the complaint.

He also told police he walked an hour to the residence early Sunday before scaling a fence on the property, breaking in to start the fires, and fleeing on foot.

Harrisburg Fire Chief Brian Enterline told reporters Monday that Balmer was in and out of the governor’s mansion for about a minute while lighting the beer bottles filled with gasoline from his lawnmower before being “quickly overcome by the product of combustion.”

The fire chief said that had a key door in the stately mansion not been closed, the fire would have “definitely spread” down a hallway and up to the main staircase to the second floor.

According to the call placed to dispatch, there were as many as 25 people in the home at the time of the arson, Enterline said, calling Balmer a “domestic terrorist” for putting the lives of Pennsylvania’s first family and firefighters at risk.

It took crews around 30 minutes to get the blaze at the governor’s mansion under control, Enterline said.

The break-in and fires occurred on the first night of Passover. State police said Sunday that “all avenues” were being explored as for Balmer’s motive, including potential hate crimes. The criminal complaint filed Sunday notes that Balmer hated Shapiro, but does not detail whether it is in relation to his Judaism.

If antisemitism did play a role in the attack, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said during an appearance on CNN, “it’s reprehensible, and anyone that would do that, they need to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.“

He added that it is “very, very concerning” that Balmer was able to enter the governor’s mansion.

Shapiro, who was uninjured, had been staying in the residence that night with his family and some extended family, following the start of the Jewish holiday. He had hosted a Passover Seder hours earlier in the room that Balmer admitted to setting ablaze with homemade incendiary devices.

The extent of the damage to the 29,000-square-foot mansion along the Susquehanna River, built in 1968, was unclear on Monday. At a news conference Sunday, Shapiro appeared with law enforcement officials in front of a blackened door and charred and broken windows.

Shapiro, in emotional remarks, condemned the incident during the news conference, saying, “This kind of violence is becoming far too common in our society … We have to be better than this. And we have a responsibility to all be better.”

“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 again proudly,” Shapiro added.

Shapiro thanked President Donald Trump and federal authorities for supporting State Police in the investigation. He told reporters Sunday he spoke to FBI Director Kash Patel, who “was extremely kind and courteous and thoughtful in his conversation with me.”

Trump briefly addressed the incident while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Monday afternoon, saying “a thing like that cannot be allowed to happen.”

The president’s remarks were in response to a question from a reporter who asked if he had been made aware of a potential motive, given federal investigators are assisting in the probe.

“No, I haven’t,” Trump responded, “but the attacker was not a fan of Trump, I understand, just from what I’ve read and from what I’ve been told. The attacker basically wasn’t a fan of anybody.”

At an unrelated event in Lebanon County on Monday, U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick said he had spoken to Shapiro the day of the break-in, and that the governor had told him he was “anxious” about hosting the 80-person Seder that in his home.

“And less than 12 hours later, we have this,” the Republican senator added. “There’s no room in our society for violence, violence against public officials, and it’s a horrific thing.”

U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, a Republican who is considering a run against Shapiro in 2026, called the attack during Passover “exceptionally vile.” He said the timeline of events suggest there may have been a “breakdown” for state police, comparing the attack to last year in Butler, where Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt after federal officials failed to properly prepare for his campaign rally there.

“How does something like that happen?” Meuser asked.

Balmer has faced criminal charges on several occasions over the last decade, including for assault, forgery, and traffic-related offenses.

In 2023, Balmer was charged with three counts of simple assault in a case that is ongoing in Dauphin County. In 2016, he pleaded guilty to one felony count of forgery and was sentenced to 18 months of probation.

Shapiro lives in the Harrisburg governor’s residence when he is not at his home in Abington Township. He has four children, two of whom are still minors who attend school in Montgomery County.

He also often uses the residence for events, including as a place for budget negotiations, which are set to begin in the coming months.

On Monday, Shapiro, through his texting platform, expressed his gratitude to those who have offered him and his family support in the wake of the attack.

“Know that we are lifted up by the light you have shined upon us during this difficult time,” the message said. “From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.”

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