HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A man scaled an iron security fence in the middle of the night, eluded police and broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion where he set a fire that left significant damage and forced Gov. Josh Shapiro, his family and guests to evacuate the building, authorities said Sunday.

The man, captured later in the day, will face charges of attempted murder, terrorism, aggravated arson and aggravated assault, authorities said.

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 2 a.m. Sunday. They fled and firefighters extinguished the fire, 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 Cody Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg.

Shapiro says he is unbowed

Paris emphasized that the investigation is continuing. Authorities did not disclose the man’s motive, but an emotional Shapiro, who is viewed as a potential White House contender for the Democratic Party in 2028, said he is unbowed.

Shapiro said that if Balmer was trying to stop him from doing his job, then he’ll work harder, and he added that Balmer will not stop him from observing his faith.

“When we were in the state dining room last night, we told the story of Passover” and the exodus of the Jews from slavery in Egypt to freedom, Shapiro said. “I refuse to be trapped by the bondage that someone attempts to put on me by attacking us as they did here last night. I refuse to let anyone who had evil intentions like that stop me from doing the work that I love.”

Police say suspect hopped security fence and forcibly entered residence

Authorities said the suspect hopped over a nearly 7-foot-high (2.1-meter-high) iron security fence surrounding the property, eluded officers who became aware of the breach and forcibly entered the residence before setting it on fire.

Lt. Col. George Bivens said Balmer had a homemade incendiary device — he would not describe what kind — and appeared to have carefully planned the attack. He was inside the residence for about a minute before he escaped, Bivens said.

Bivens said Balmer was later arrested in the area. Authorities did not say whether Balmer has a lawyer or where he was being held and calls to people believed to be relatives went unanswered or unreturned. One recent listed residence in Harrisburg was condemned in 2022.

Balmer has faced criminal charges over the past decade including simple assault, theft and forgery, according to online criminal court records.

‘We have to be better than this,’ Shapiro says

Shapiro said the fire was set in the very room where he and his family celebrated Passover with a seder with members of Harrisburg’s Jewish community on Saturday night.

“We don’t know the person’s specific motive yet,” Shapiro told the news conference. “But we do know a few truths. First: This type of violence is not OK. This kind of violence is becoming far too common in our society. And I don’t give a damn if it’s coming from one particular side or the other, directed at one particular party or another or one particular person or another. It is not OK, and it has to stop. We have to be better than this.”

The fire badly damaged the inside of the large room that is often used for entertaining crowds and art displays. Large west- and south-facing windows were completely missing their glass panes, shattered glass littered the pathways and doors stood ajar amid signs of charring. Window panes and brick around doors and windows were blackened and charred.

Inside, a charred piano, tables, walls, metal buffet serving dishes and more could be seen through broken windows and fire-blackened doors.

Justice Department and other agencies pledge to help

Shapiro said he had received pledges of help from the Department of Justice, the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office, as well as numerous messages of support from fellow governors and others.

Yellow tape cordoned off an alleyway on the residence’s south side, where investigators dogs outside the iron security fence and sawed off a section from the top of the security fence. They wrapped it in heavy black plastic and took it away in a vehicle.

Shapiro splits his time between the mansion that has housed governors since it was built in the 1960s and a home in Abington, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east. He posted a photograph on social media Saturday of the family’s Passover Seder table at the residence.

“Thanks be to God that Governor Shapiro and his family were unharmed in this attack,” Vice President JD Vance posted to X. “Really disgusting violence, and I hope whoever did it is brought swiftly to justice.”

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Mark Schweiker, a Republican, called the attack a “despicable act of cowardice” and said he hoped Pennsylvanians joined he and his wife in keeping the Shapiros in their prayers.

Former Gov. Tom Ridge, also a Republican, said images of the damage to the residence where he lived for eight years with his family were “heartbreaking” and said the attack on the official residence was shocking.

“Whoever is responsible for this attack — to both the Shapiro family and our Commonwealth — must be held to account,” Ridge said.

ROME (AP) — The Prada Group announced a deal Thursday to buy crosstown Milan fashion rival Versace from the U.S. luxury group Capri Holdings under terms that values one of the most recognizable names in Italian fashion at 1.25 billion euros ($1.4 billion).

The deal will put Versace, known for sexy silhouettes and bold Greco and Medusa motifs, under the same roof as Prada’s “ugly chic” aesthetic and the youth-driven Miu Miu whose stunning growth in recent years has far outpaced the market. Prada said the 47-year-old Versace brand offered “significant untapped growth potential.’’

“This is exactly the strength for our group. There are no overlaps in terms of creativity, in terms of customer,″ said Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada’s chief marketing officer, who is being groomed to one day take over the business that his parents — Miuccia Prada, the group’s creative force and largest shareholder, and Patrizio Bertelli, its chairman and executive director — have turned into a global fashion juggernaut.

“We are buying a brand with huge potential, with a very recognizable aesthetic,” Lorenzo Bertelli said, underlining that the Versace brand name recognition, putting it among the top 10 in the world, far outweighs its business performance.

The final value of the deal will be adjusted at closing, which is expected in the second half of the year, the Prada Group said. It will be funded by 1.5 billion euros in new debt and has been approved by the Prada and Capri Holdings board of directors.

Prada Chief Executive Andrea Guerra said the deal was aimed at building a “sustainable revenue growth” and boosting the brand’s identity, and was not about squeezing synergies. Prada’s statement underlined that Versace will “maintain its creative DNA and cultural authenticity, ” while benefitting from its “industrial capabilities, retail execution and operations expertise. ”

There are no plans to change the CEO and Miuccia Prada will not be involved in the creative side of Versace, the executives said. Guerra added that the recent creative shakeup at Versace, with Miu Miu head of design Dario Vitale replacing Donatella Versace as creative director effective April 1, had nothing to do with the deal. He called it “an independent, very personal” decision by Vitale.

Lorenzo Bertelli said the experience of Miu Miu’s growth had shown that small changes can make all the difference. ”We don’t need to change the brand, revolutionize it. We need to just evolve it, make the right things happen, and all together they are hopefully going to bring a huge spark and bring back Versace to be a huge success,” he said.

Capri Holdings, which owns Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo, paid $2 billion for Versace in 2018, but had been struggling to position Versace’s bold profile in the recent era of “quiet luxury.″

Versace represented 20% of Capri Holdings 2024 revenue of 5.2 billion euros. An analyst presentation for the Prada deal said that Versace would represent 13% of the Prada Group’s pro-forma revenues, with Miu Miu coming in at 22% and Prada at 64%. The Prada Group, which also includes Church’s footwear, reported a 17% boost in revenues to 5.4 billion euros last year.

Donatella Versace, who took over as creative director at the fashion house founded by her brother, Gianni Versace, after his 1997 murder, continues with the fashion house in the new role of chief brand ambassador.

“I am absolutely delighted to become part of the Prada family,” she wrote in a post on Instagram beneath a photograph of herself and Miuccia Prada. ”I am honored to have the brand in the hands of such a trusted Italian family business, and I am ready to support this new era for the brand in any way I can.”

The Italian government welcomed a deal that appears to secure Versace’s longer term future as other family-owned fashion brands have faltered or even disappeared after opening up to outside investors.

“An historic ‘Made in Italy’ brand is Italian again,” Industry Minister Adolfo Urso said.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama teen who narrowly survived a fierce shark attack last year said she hopes a proposed alert system before state lawmakers can help keep others safe in the water.

Lulu Gribbin, now 16, was one of three people bitten by a shark on June 7, 2024, during a string of attacks off the Florida Panhandle. She lost her left hand and a portion of her leg. On Wednesday, she asked Alabama lawmakers to support a proposed shark attack alert system.

The bill by Republican Rep. David Faulkner would establish an alert system, similar to the Amber Alert system, that would issue a notice to the public when there’s been an unprovoked shark attack in the vicinity.

“Ninety minutes before me, there was another shark attack a couple miles down the coast,” Gribbin said. Had she known about that attack, she and her friend would not have ventured into the water that day, she said. “This bill will help prevent future attacks and accidents.”

The Alabama House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee advanced the bill Wednesday. It now moves to the full Alabama House of Representatives. The first of it’s kind system

Gribbin and her friend had been diving for sand dollars before the attack. They were riding the waves back to the beach when her friend screamed, “shark!”

“I saw a big shadow, but we all just started swimming for our lives,” She recalled. She said she tried to remain calm, remembering that sharks were supposed to be attracted to frantic motion. Then the shark attacked her and her friend.

“My hand was bitten first. I remember just lifting it out of the water, and I was stunned because there was no hand there. I couldn’t feel it because of all the shock I was in. Then the shark latched onto my leg,” she recalled.

A man she describes as a hero ran to pull her from the water. She blacked out and came to on the shore where a doctor and other medical workers, who were on the beach that day, rushed to save her. “I remember being focused just to keep my eyes open and to breathe, to just be able to make it to the hospital,” she said.

Her lengthy recovery has been documented on social media. As she visited the Alabama Statehouse, people frequently stopped to ask for photographs and to tell her that her story has been an inspiration.

While sharks are commonly found in the waters off Alabama and Florida, shark attacks are rare, said Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s shark research program. He said there are between 50 and 90 unprovoked bites around the world each year. And a trio of bites in a single day in close proximity is extremely rare, he said.

He said, generally speaking, the data shows that one shark bite does not increase the likelihood of another happening soon. However, Naylor said weather conditions that day likely brought an abundance of small fish closer to shore.

“The bait fish were very close into shore along that same beach and sharks were following them. But on any day in Alabama, you can see 20 or 30 bull sharks 400 meters offshore, but they just don’t interact with the public because they are much farther away,” Naylor said.

Naylor noted that rip currents kill far more people than sharks each year. Four people were killed worldwide in shark attacks last year. The U.S. Lifesaving Association estimated there are about 100 deaths each year in the U.S. from rip currents.

While the proposal would only impact the Alabama coast, Faulkner hopes other states will pursue similar systems or that federal legislation would expand its use.

“There had been a shark attack just down the beach, and yet she had no notice. And I felt like in this day and age, that’s something we shouldn’t let happen,” Faulkner said.

The bill, which would name the alert system for Gribbin, was changed to issue an alert only when an unprovoked attack occurred off the coast.

An earlier version would have allowed an alert for an “imminent danger” from sharks. There were concerns from beach communities that language was too vague and could lead to an excessive alerts, causing panic and potentially hurting the tourism industry.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Wednesday urged lawmakers to approve the legislation, saying it will be an “added tool” to keep people safe, calling the teen “an inspiration and an awesome example of courage.”