Someone tried to firebomb a swing state governor’s house. A suspect is hospitalized (2025)

The man accused of using two gasoline-filled beer bottles to set the Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence on fire Sunday has been hospitalized, police announced Monday.

Cody Balmer, 38, was hospitalized “due to a medical event not connected to this incident or his arrest,” Pennsylvania State Police said in a short news release Monday morning.

Police said he will remain under their under supervision and be taken to Dauphin County Prison for arraignment after he is released from the hospital. The extent of the medical event and his current condition are unknown.

Balmer was supposed to be arraigned Monday morning by a Harrisburg magisterial district judge but it was canceled. An arraignment court hearing is where a defendant is formally informed of the charges against them and asked to enter a plea. Court officials said he was not expected to be arraigned Monday.

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Balmer is charged with seven felonies, including attempted murder and arson in connection to a fire around 2 a.m. at the Governor’s Residence at 2035 Front St. in Harrisburg.

An affidavit of probable cause said Balmer was seen on surveillance cameras around 2 a.m. climbing over an exterior perimeter fence along Geiger Street, which borders Front Street.

Balmer admitted to harboring hatred toward Governor Josh Shapiro and said he knew it was a possibility the Shapiros would be home at the time of the fire, according to court documents.

The governor, his wife and houseguests were evacuated without injury.

The affidavit said Balmer told state police he removed gasoline from his lawn mower and poured it into the beer bottles, then walked for an hour to the Governor’s Residence with the intention of setting it ablaze.

Balmer said he used a sledgehammer to break the mansion’s windows and would have beaten Shapiro with the hammer if he’d encountered him during the fire, according to the affidavit.

Police said they found the sledgehammer and the clothing Balmer was wearing during the fire inside his Boas Street home.

Gubernatorial security “knew that there had been a breach on the property and we were searching to determine what had occurred,” said Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens.

State police said on Sunday that Balmer evaded state police who were searching for him after he climbed the fence and was able to set the fires in the meantime.

Dressed in black clothing and carrying a bag, Balmer approached the piano room windows on the south side of the property and threw a homemade flammable device through a window, court documents said.

Flames were seen inside the mansion soon afterward. According to the affidavit, Balmer went to another window, broke the glass and went inside the home.

Balmer threw another homemade device inside the mansion’s dining room that ignited other parts of the house, court documents said.

The Governor’s Residence is a 29,000-square-foot complex built in 1968. The room that Balmer allegedly set afire was a reception room and banquet hall that houses artwork and historical exhibits. The governor’s personal living quarters are elsewhere in the mansion.

The affidavit said Balmer kicked the dining room door open and left the mansion. Surveillance footage showed he was wearing two different colored gloves, one orange and one yellow.

Surveillance cameras showed Balmer leaving the property by climbing over the Geiger Street fence and running through a nearby parking lot and toward Peffer Street, according to the affidavit.

The footage showed the man discarding his gloves, and court documents said two gasoline-covered gloves were later found in a trash can on Peffer Street.

State police said the fire caused extensive damage to the dining and piano rooms.

Bivens said Balmer was relatively meticulous in his approach, although it is unclear how well-versed he was in the layout of the property.

“He clearly had a plan,” Bivens said. “He was very methodical in his approach and moved through it without a lot of hurry.”

State police said they were contacted Sunday by a woman who said Balmer, her ex-boyfriend, was responsible for the fire, the affidavit said. Balmer surrendered to police later that day.