World News | Security Review Planned for Pennsylvania Governor's Official Residence After Arson Attack

Harrisburg, Apr 16 (AP) An independent expert will review security at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's official residence after investigators accused a man of scaling a wall and setting fire to the mansion, state police said on Wednesday.

The review will be a risk and vulnerability assessment of the governor's official residence following the security breach, Pennsylvania State Police announced.

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Court records and interviews with family members show Cody Balmer's life unraveled dramatically in the years before authorities say the 38-year-old scaled an iron security fence in the middle of the night, eluded police and set the Democratic governor's mansion ablaze.

Dan Balmer, an electrical engineer who lives in the Harrisburg suburbs, told The Associated Press that he had given Cody Balmer a place to live a couple years ago. He was involved in getting his brother treatment at the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute twice, saying Cody Balmer exhibited disturbing behavior.

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“He's had ups and downs his whole life with the bipolar,” Dan Balmer said. “He doesn't believe he's bipolar, so he doesn't take his medicine.”

A motive for the attack, including whether it had anything to do with Shapiro's politics or religious beliefs, wasn't immediately clear.

Cody Balmer, who is registered as an unaffiliated voter, had always been politically interested and considered himself “more of an independent than anything else,” his brother said, but that seemed to change during the 2024 election, when “he tried to convince everybody in the family” to vote for Donald Trump.

The night before the governor's residence was attacked, Dan Balmer said, Cody Balmer flipped over a table containing a jigsaw puzzle at the home where he lived with their parents. Dan Balmer said he felt Cody was verbally abusive to their parents and urged his mother to stand up for herself.

“I remember specifically telling my mom, You need to get mad at him because he's taking advantage of you guys,'” he said.

Christie Balmer, Cody Balmer's mother, said Monday that she had made calls in recent days about her son's mental health, but “nobody would help”.

Dan Balmer said that his brother had a grudge against his wife because she pressed for Cody Balmer to get inpatient psychiatric care and that he claimed she was a witch who had cast a spell on him. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)