HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania man accused of a fire bomb was released on bail when Josh Shapiro’s mansion allegedly committed arson.
Meanwhile, Cody Ballmer’s mother said she tried to lock her son up by police before the attack.
Bermer, 38, was brought back to a Harrisburg courtroom on Monday for his arrest, pulling him in the sick face where he was hit with eight counts of charges, including terrorism, arson, criminal murder and night wandering.
The former mechanic who said he was now unemployed, penniless and lives with his parents was free after being released on bail for a simple assault charge in 2023, court spokesman Stacey Witalec told the Post.
In that case, police reports say he was accused of stomping his 10-year-old son on the foot and abusing his wife.
Bermer sticks his tongue out and crosses his eyes when Pennsylvania police officers were tied to their hands and ankles at Dauphin County Sorcerer District Court on Monday.
Judge Dale Klein immediately ordered him not to be held captive and replied, “Thank you, ma’am.”
He had a tattered beard and looked gaunt as he struggled to hold down his beltless pants while he was in and out of court. He was sitting in the defendant’s chair with awfully breathing breath when he spoke to the judge.
Police said Ballmer jumped over the fence at the official governor’s mansion at Harrisburg’s home around 2am on Sunday, pulling a handful of Molotov cocktails into the historic residence while his wife, his two children, were asleep.
Shapiro, a Jewish Democrat, had just celebrated the first night of Passover. He and his family fled unharmed, but the damage to the mansion is estimated to be millions.
Ballmer told the judge that he had no income last year and lived with his parents. And when asked if he had children, he replied “a lot,” but refused to elaborate.
He also said that “rumorrows” about his dangerous mental health was true, suggesting that the medications he took to treat it had had a negative effect on him.
“The drugs have led to different types of behavior,” Ballmer told the court.
Ballmer’s mother, Christy, told CBS News that her son was “a mentally ill and he escaped from his medicine.”
It remains unknown that the exact mental illness is suffering, but his mother said she went to four different police stations to “pick up” her son before extinguishing, but was rejected every time.
According to a Harrisburg police report, Ballmer was reportedly a police officer on Sunday afternoon and confessed to the attack.
He told investigators he made an improvised bomb with Heineken beer bottles and gasoline from his lawnmower.
Ballmer also told police that if he met the governor inside the apartment building he was ready to defeat Shapiro with a hammer, and he reportedly knew that Pol’s family was likely inside at the time.
Ballmer will be represented by a public defense counsel during the hearing and is expected to return to court on April 23rd.
He previously had a deadline in court on April 16 for a hearing of a complaint over the 2023 assault charge, but it is unclear whether the hearing will remain the same.
