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The man accused of setting fire to the Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial mansion early Sunday morning while Governor Josh Shapiro and his family were asleep inside was due in court three days later on allegations that he assaulted his wife and stepson after trying to take his own life.
Those records help provide a more complete picture of Cody Balmer, 38, of the Pennsylvania capital of Harrisburg, who was denied bail on Monday on charges of attempted murder, terrorism, aggravated assault and aggravated arson in connection with the governor’s mansion blaze.
Balmer, who stuck his tongue out at news media reporters as he was being led into court Monday, had been due in court Wednesday on charges related to domestic abuse allegations.
According to a police affidavit from January 2023, police were dispatched to Balmer’s residence after a child called about domestic abuse. Balmer allegedly told officers responding to the call that he had taken a full bottle of pills in a suicide attempt.
That escalated into an argument between Balmer and his wife, with Balmer allegedly assaulting both her and his stepson, according to court records reviewed by The Hill.
USA Today further reported that Balmer and his wife finalized their divorce in February 2025, and he was subject to a protection from abuse order.
Balmer’s mother spoke to the Associated Press and said her son grappled with mental health issues. She reportedly said she had made calls in recent days about those issues, but “nobody would help”.
Balmer’s bail denial on Monday occurred after prosecutors said he told police that he planned to beat Shapiro with a hammer – and used Molotov cocktails made from beer bottles filled with gasoline to start the fire. Security footage from the residence evidently shows a man who was carrying a bag and wearing a black tools jacket – as well as black boots – breaking a window into the home and tossing a homemade Molotov cocktail in.
Balmer surrendered to the Pennsylvania state police on Sunday and admitted to “harboring hatred toward governor Shapiro”, authorities alleged. Asked during a police interview what he would have done had Shapiro found him inside the residence, “he advised he would have beaten him with his hammer,” said the probable cause affidavit justifying Balmer’s arrest.
In court on Monday, county judge Dale Klein asked Balmer if he took any medication for mental illness. Balmer responded that he was not mentally ill and he had not taken medication, adding that it had “led … to different types of behavior” in the past.
Klein said he had denied Balmer bail because he could be a danger to the community and himself.
The arson attack attributed to Balmer followed a series of other attacks targeting US political figures.
Those include against Paul Pelosi, the husband of congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, and two separate assassination attempts on Donald Trump.
Supporters of Trump – whose first presidency ended in defeat after the 2020 election but then won back the Oval Office in November – violently attacked the US Capitol in January 6 2021. And, on 8 April, a California man pleaded guilty to trying to kill US supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2022.
ABC News reported that social media pages connected to Balmer appear to show both critiques to Trump and his presidential predecessor Joe Biden.
Balmer seemed to reject Biden’s 2020 presidential win over Trump and criticized him on Facebook during his term. Posts included a picture with the text “Joe Biden owes me 2 grand” and another that said: “Biden supporters shouldn’t exist.”
In 2020, he posted a meme that argued that both Democrats and Republicans “would rather argue with other than work to solve the problems we are facing”.
After the alleged arson attack, Shapiro said: “This kind of violence is not OK.
“I don’t give a damn if it’s coming from one particular side or the other, directed at one particular party or another, or one particular person or another. It is not OK, and it has to stop.”
Authorities have not disclosed the precise motive for the alleged arsonist. Posting on X, Biden said he and former first lady Jill Biden were “disgusted by the attack on the Shapiro family and their home” – while noting it occurred during the first night of the major Jewish holiday of Passover.
“There is no place for this type of evil in America, and as I told the governor yesterday, we must stand united against hatred and violence,” Biden said.
Trump commented from the White House on Monday that Balmer was “probably just a wack job”.
“The attacker was not a fan of Trump,” the president said. “I understand, just from what I read and from what I’ve been told, the attacker basically wasn’t a fan of anybody.
“Certainly a thing like that cannot be allowed to happen.”
Other entries on Balmer’s rap sheet include several additional violations in Pennsylvania. Among them: a guilty plea to forgery in 2016, for which he was sentenced to 18 months of probation.
ABC also reported that Balmer had been dealing with “protracted” foreclosure proceedings. The outlet added that Balmer posted memes urging people to “become ungovernable” and reposted an artwork of a Molotov cocktail in 2022 with the slogan: “Be the light you want to see in the world.”
