Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said the arson attack on the governor’s residence earlier this year left him with “an enormous sense of guilt” following a guilty plea entered by the man charged with the attack on Tuesday.
“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,” Shapiro said, standing beside his wife, Pennsylvania first lady Lori Shapiro.
The governor said that he and his wife have struggled to make sense of the attack over the last six months, noting that the hardest part was explaining it to their children, nieces, and nephews.
“I’ve carried with me this enormous sense of guilt,” Shapiro said. “Guilt that doing this job that I love so much has put our children’s lives at risk.”
“Candidly, 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 but I can tell you that I’ve tried and it’s been an ongoing effort,” he continued.
Shapiro said his children wanted to know how the intruder was able to get so far into the governor’s residence, which they thought was “the safest place we could possibly be.”
According to the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office, Cory A. Balmer pleaded guilty to attempted murder, aggravated arson, 22 counts of arson, burglary, and other offenses related to the attack. Balmer was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in state prison as part of a plea deal.
Prosecutors had accused Balmer of breaking into the governor’s residence and setting it ablaze during the second night of Passover last April. Shapiro, who is Jewish, hosted a Seder for the holiday the night before the attack with his family.
