Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Tuesday said he carries significant “guilt” because of his concerns for his children after an arson attack on his home during the first night of Passover earlier this year.
“I’ve carried with me this enormous sense of guilt — guilt that doing this job that I love so much has put our children’s lives at risk,” the Democratic governor said during a speech.
Standing with his wife, Shapiro reacted to a man, Cody Balmer, pleading guilty Tuesday to attempted murder, aggravated arson, 22 counts of arson, burglary, and other charges for his attack on the governor’s mansion. Balmer was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison, the district attorney’s office said in a statement.
While Shapiro thanked prosecutors for securing the guilty plea, he lamented the ordeal and admitted he has dealt with trauma.
“Lori and I have struggled over the last six months to try and make sense of all of this. And the hardest part has been trying to explain it to our four children and to our nieces and nephews,” Shapiro said. “I don’t know that I’ve been able to give them the right answers. I don’t know that I’ve been able to ease our children’s worries.”
“Why would someone want to do us harm, our kids will ask?” Shapiro added. “How were they able to get so far into the governor’s residence, the place that was supposed to be the safest place we could possibly be?”
“It’s hard for me to stand before you today and utter the words ‘attempted murder’ when it’s your own life; to know that someone tried to kill me. It’s especially hard to know that he tried to burn our family to death while we slept.”
