Dauphin County District Attorney
CV NEWS FEED // Family members of Cody Balmer, the man accused of setting fire to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s mansion earlier this month, said they repeatedly tried to get him mental health help before the arson took place.
In the early hours of April 13, Balmer allegedly breached the governor’s mansion grounds, broke windows, and hurled Molotov cocktails into the dining room, CatholicVote previously reported.
Less than an hour after the fire, Balmer called 911, offering to “confess to everything” he had done, The Detroit News reported.
Despite multiple efforts by Balmer and his family to alert authorities, police did not immediately take him into custody. After calling 911, Balmer returned to his parents’ home in Penbrook Borough and waited. His former partner, Rosetta Welsh, said she called the Pennsylvania State Police tip line to report Balmer’s confession, but no officers arrived. Balmer later attempted to turn himself in at the Penbrook police station, but officers left him alone to respond to another call.
“We’re a small department,” Penbrook Police Chief Joseph Hogarth told The Detroit News, explaining that officers did not fully understand Balmer’s rambling statements and prioritized the other call.
Balmer then walked nearly 3 miles to the Pennsylvania State Police headquarters, where he was finally arrested more than 12 hours after the attack. He now faces charges, including attempted murder for allegedly trying to kill Shapiro and his family.
Family members said they had already tried to secure help for Balmer as his mental health deteriorated over the past year. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia after a 2023 psychiatric hospitalization, Balmer had stopped taking his medication and spiraled into paranoia.
A week before the arson attempt, his mother, Christie Balmer, contacted a local crisis intervention line but was told her son did not meet the threshold for involuntary commitment, she told The Detroit News. Balmer fled after overhearing the call.
Balmer’s family maintains that the attack on the Shapiros’ home was not politically or religiously motivated, despite occurring during Passover; it instead was the result of his severe mental illness.
“He’s mentally ill. He needed the help and we didn’t know where to turn,” Welsh said, according to The Detroit News.
By early April, Balmer had begun expressing delusional fears, talking about demons and claiming people were targeting his family. His erratic behavior intensified in the days leading up to the fire.
Balmer had told the 911 operator that Shapiro “needs to leave my family alone, he needs to get his eyes off of my daughters, and he needs to stop having my friends killed,” according to The Detroit News.
Christie Balmer reflected on her son’s earlier years, remembering a father who once coached football and took his children on beach trips. Now, she and her family are left grieving the system’s repeated failure to intervene.
“I tried to get him help and I couldn’t get him help,” she said. “That’s really upsetting to me because this wouldn’t have happened if he would have gotten help when we asked for it.”
