{"id":119833,"date":"2026-02-21T12:17:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/119833\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T12:17:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:17:20","slug":"new-jersey-man-charged-in-bethlehem-restaurant-shooting-that-injured-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/119833\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey man charged in Bethlehem restaurant shooting that injured 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A New Jersey man faces charges alleging <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcall.com\/2025\/08\/08\/bethlehem-police-investigating-double-shooting-at-south-side-restaurant\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he opened fire in a restaurant, injuring two people late last week in Bethlehem.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ashton Jordan Thomas, 18, of Stewartsville faces charges of attempted homicide in a shooting that injured two Friday morning at Sizzling Bites in South Side Bethlehem. He has not been arrested as of Monday, according to court records.<\/p>\n<p>City police wrote in court documents that Thomas got into an argument with a group of people, and fired at them after one of them slapped him. A man and a woman were both hit by gunfire.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas faces charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, simple assault, carrying a firearm without a license and recklessly endangering another person.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators, searching surveillance footage, said the following happened:<\/p>\n<p>Thomas and his group got in an argument just after midnight outside the restaurant at 312 E. Third St.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas entered the restaurant briefly, then returned outside. Shortly after, he went back into the restaurant while wearing a mask.<\/p>\n<p>He walked around the restaurant and returned to the entrance, where the group he had argued with had moved to. A man in that group slapped Thomas, prompting a fight between them. During that time, Thomas pulled a handgun from his right pocket and fired five times. Thomas and two others then fled from the area.<\/p>\n<p>Eight people were in the direct line of fire, and about 30 people were at the restaurant at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Bethlehem police watched nearby surveillance footage and saw Thomas and his group get into a vehicle with a New Jersey registration. Investigators contacted Phillipsburg police, and a detective there identified Thomas and his group. In addition to the shooting, authorities said Thomas did not have a concealed carry permit.<\/p>\n<p>The two people who were shot were treated at a nearby hospital and were listed in stable condition Friday morning, according to police.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone with information on the shooting can contact police at 610-865-7000 or BethlehemPolice@bethlehem-pa.gov.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New Jersey man faces charges alleging he opened fire in a restaurant, injuring two people late last&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,202,182,139,434,28,432],"class_list":["post-119833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-northampton-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}