{"id":166475,"date":"2026-04-15T12:42:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T12:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/166475\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T12:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T12:42:15","slug":"neighbors-shocked-and-saddened-to-learn-18-year-old-died-of-gunshot-wound-last-week-in-west-allentown-lehigh-valley-regional-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/166475\/","title":{"rendered":"Neighbors ‘shocked and saddened’ to learn 18-year-old died of gunshot wound last week in west Allentown | Lehigh Valley Regional News"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALLENTOWN, Pa. – An 18-year-old woman is dead and a man is behind bars after a shooting that is now being ruled a homicide. It happened last week in the 2000 block of West Green Street in Allentown. Officials say Sian Cartagena died last Wednesday, two days after being shot.<\/p>\n

The Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office tells 69 News a suspect is in prison for the death. Many neighbors say they’re shocked to learn what happened, as many saw police activity, but didn’t know what was going on.<\/p>\n

“I’m really shocked and saddened to hear that this happened to this young lady,” Cindy, a neighbor only giving out her first name, said. “And I’m really frightened that it happened just steps away from our front door.”<\/p>\n

Officials say the incident happened around 5:38 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 2. Cartagena died two days later, on Oct. 4. Many neighbors, like Cindy, saw the police activity on Monday, and say it stayed there for about nine hours that day.<\/p>\n

“I heard a lot of sirens and looked out the window and there were all kinds of police,” she said.<\/p>\n

Lehigh County Coroner Dan Buglio announced Cartagena died last Wednesday from a gunshot wound she got two days before that. The coroner ruled it a homicide.<\/p>\n

Court papers say Ethan Nicholas Bastien is charged with criminal attempt – criminal homicide, and two counts of aggravated assault. He was denied bail, court papers say, due to being a “danger to community.”<\/p>\n

“People always say this couldn’t happen in our neighborhood, but it’s happening everywhere,” Cindy said.<\/p>\n

While officials aren’t saying much at this time, the young woman’s mother, on a GoFundMe<\/a> page verified by 69 News, says her daughter was “a victim due to a domestic abusive relationship.”<\/p>\n

Cartagena’s mom also says on the page that the 18-year-old was the oldest of five children, and she “had so many goals, dreams and plans” as she was just stepping into young adulthood.<\/p>\n

Local nonprofit Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley is working to end gun violence in the area.<\/p>\n

“We don’t know the exact details of what’s happening or what’s happened,” Rodney Bushe, a coordinator with the nonprofit, told 69 News. “But we’re going to be making sure that we hit that area…and we give the neighborhood and community members resources that they need.”<\/p>\n

The case is being investigated by the Lehigh County Coroner’s Office, the Allentown Police Department, the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Homicide Task Force and the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to take an entire community, it’s going to take our friends and family folks that agree with us and folks that disagree with us,” Bushe said. “So that we can bring an end to this.”<\/p>\n

“I’m just so sorry to hear it,” neighbor, Cindy, said. “And I will pray for the family.”<\/p>\n

Neighbors say it’s usually a quiet part of Allentown, though some say it has changed over the last few years.<\/p>\n

“Older people have sold their homes and moved on in one way or another,” Cindy said. “It’s just changed a whole lot.”<\/p>\n

Officials say the autopsy was done just Monday morning and the charges are expected to be updated, in light of the young woman’s death. Police say they don’t believe that there is any danger to the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. – An 18-year-old woman is dead and a man is behind bars after a shooting that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,1816,28],"class_list":["post-166475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-lehigh-county-district-attorney","tag-pennsylvania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166475","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=166475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}