Suspect planned to beat Pennsylvania governor with hammer, documents show

A man who allegedly scaled an iron security fence in the middle of the night, eluded police and broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion before starting a fire there had planned to beat governor Josh Shapiro with a hammer if he found him, according to court documents.

The fire left significant damage and forced Mr Shapiro, his family and guests to evacuate the building early on Sunday.

The man, arrested later in the day, faces charges including attempted homicide, terrorism, aggravated arson and aggravated assault, authorities said.

During a police interview, authorities said Cody Balmer told them after he was taken into custody that he would have beaten Mr Shapiro with a hammer if he had found him, the documents say.

Balmer had walked an hour from his home to the governor’s residence, and during the police interview “Balmer admitted to harbouring hatred towards Governor Shapiro,” according to a police affidavit.

Mr Shapiro said he, his wife, their four children, two dogs and another family had celebrated the Jewish holiday of Passover at the residence on Saturday and were awakened by state troopers pounding on their doors at about 2am on Sunday (7am BST).

They fled and firefighters extinguished the blaze, officials said. No-one was injured.

At a Sunday evening news conference in front of the badly damaged south wing of the governor’s residence, Pennsylvania State Police Col Christopher Paris identified the man in custody as 38-year-old Balmer, of Harrisburg.