Harrisburg, Pa. – A consultant paid to review security in the official residence of the Governor of Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro after it was Firebombado by a night intruder On Friday he said that his team’s findings will not be made public.
The colonel of the retired state police, Jeffrey Miller, said in a statement that the “sensitive nature” of the findings he has given Shapiro and the State Police “prevents his release to the public for obvious reasons.”
The dangerous breakdown in the protection has asked questions about how the intruder could avoid the security of the state police when it rose a close of 7 feet (2 meters) and broke two windows, then crawled inside and turned on destructive fires with two bottles of beer full of gasoline.
“I am sure that if it is completely implemented, the key recommendations we have made will prevent an attack of this nature from being successful in the future,” said Miller. His security consulting firm based in San Diego is being paid more than $ 35,000 for work.
Miller and his team evaluated the security in Shapiro’s official residence and have recommended how to “mitigate the discovered holes,” as Miller said in a contract document presented to the State. They interviewed the employees of the State Police on tax tasks the night of the attack and about the security monitoring systems that were in force.
They also examined the suppression of fire, external and internal perimeters, training and other factors.
Shapiro has thanked the police and firefighters for rescuing He and his familyBut he also said that there were security failures in the three -story georgian brick style residence that is located along the Susquehanna river more than one mile (1.6 kilometers) north of the Capitol.
The minority leader of the Chamber of Representatives of Pennsylvania, Jesse Topper, a Republican of the Bedford County, has pressed the administration to grant parts of the report to the legislators who show what went wrong with the security of the governor. However, he said that he understands that plans to improve security should not be made public if he compromises the security of the governor.
“However, in terms of the responsibility of what happened and how it happened, I think that is a question that must be answered and that these answers must be provided to the representatives of the people here in the Chamber and the Senate,” Topper said Thursday in his Capitol office.
Topper said Friday that he had not received an answer to an investigation into whether legislators, who can be called to approve more money for improved security, can read parts of the report.
Miller was appointed to lead the State Police in 2003 by then Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, and spent almost six years at superior work. He has also been a senior security official of the National Soccer League and held other security -related positions.
A Harrisburg man, Cody Balmer, 38, has been accused of attempted homicide, premeditated fire and other crimes for the attack on Harrisburg’s state residence around 2 in the morning on Sunday, April 13. The fire caused an estimate of millions of dollars in damages but no one was injured.
Shapiro fled the residence with his wife and children, since then he has clarified that only three of his four children were at home, after being awakened by the police. They and their guests had participated in a Easter Seder the night before.
Daushin County District Prosecutor Fran Chardo said investigators are evaluating if religious or political bias I could explain why Balmer expressed “hate” for Shapiro, who is Jewish.
Balmer, who denied having had a mental illness despite the comments of his family on the contrary, is accused of breaking into the residence in Harrisburg on the night of early night on Sunday and lighting two bottles of beer that contain gasoline, causing extensive damage but without injuries.
“As bad as the result of the attack, we are grateful that the actions of the members of the Office of Executive Services to immediately evacuate the governor and his family to security prevented injuries or losses of lives,” Miller said in the statement.
Shapiro divides his time between the Harrisburg mansion built in the 1960s and the family home in Abington, a suburb of Philadelphia. The Democrat is seen as a possible White House contender in 2028.
In a 911 call less than an hour after the fire, Balmer said: “Governor Josh Shapiro needs to know that Cody Balmer will not participate in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,” according to a recording published by Dauphin County. When asked what could have done if he had met Shapiro, Balmer said he would have hit the governor with a deck, police said.
Balmer later became at the headquarters of the State Police in Harrisburg and remains imprisoned without bail.
Balmer’s family has said that he has a History of mental illnessthat Balmer denied in a brief appearance in court. The procedures in the criminal case are waiting while evaluating if it is mentally competent to be judged.
