{"id":46252,"date":"2025-11-27T15:52:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T15:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/46252\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T15:52:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T15:52:18","slug":"man-accidentally-shoots-himself-outside-historic-bethlehem-social-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/46252\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accidentally shoots himself outside historic Bethlehem social club"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 A man has been charged after he unintentionally shot himself during a fight outside a Bethlehem social club early Saturday morning.<\/p>\n<p>City police responded at about 3:49 a.m. Sept. 20 to the 540 Democratic Club, 540 N. New St., for reports of shots fired and a fight in the parking lot.<\/p>\n<p>The 540 Democratic Club is one of Bethlehem\u2019s longtime neighborhood social clubs, founded in the mid-20th century as a gathering place for local Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>Officers secured the scene and spoke with witnesses. Shortly after, a man arrived at St. Luke\u2019s Hospital\u2013Fountain Hill with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, police said.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators determined an argument began inside the establishment and escalated outside, where multiple people were assaulted.<\/p>\n<p>Police identified the wounded man as Andre C. Cantave, who they say struck several individuals before pulling out a firearm. They believe Cantave\u2019s injury occurred when he accidentally shot himself.<\/p>\n<p>Cantave faces charges of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, possessing instruments of crime, simple assault and reckless endangerment.<\/p>\n<p>A second suspect, Shatika Schaffer, was also charged with simple assault in connection with the incident.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities said there is no ongoing danger to the public.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll parties are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law,\u201d the Bethlehem Police Department said in a release.<\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/lehighdaily.com\/author\/isabel-hope\/\" class=\"flex-shrink-0 group block leading-none\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/isabel-hope-headshot-150x150.jpeg\" width=\"96\" height=\"96\"  alt=\"Isabel Hope\" class=\"avatar avatar-96 wp-user-avatar wp-user-avatar-96 alignnone photo block rounded-full w-20 h-20 md:w-14 md:h-14 object-cover ring-2 ring-white dark:ring-[#2a2a2a] shadow-lg group-hover:ring-brand transition-all duration-200\"\/>                <\/p>\n<p>        <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-sm text-text-secondary dark:text-gray-400 mt-1.5 leading-relaxed\">Isabel Hope is a journalist and website designer based in Bethlehem, PA. She graduated with a degree in journalism from The University of Alabama in 2022, where she served as News Editor of the student newspaper. Isabel has lived in the Lehigh Valley for three years and is passionate about reporting for the communities she now calls home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 A man has been charged after he unintentionally shot himself during a fight outside a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-46252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46252","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=46252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}