{"id":772,"date":"2025-10-15T04:23:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T04:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/772\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T04:23:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T04:23:25","slug":"2-teens-charged-after-social-media-challenges-take-dark-turn-in-bethlehem-pa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/772\/","title":{"rendered":"2 teens charged after social media challenges take dark turn in Bethlehem, Pa."},"content":{"rendered":"

BETHLEHEM, Pa. (WPVI) — A 17-year-old from Northampton County<\/a> is facing involuntary manslaughter charges after a social media challenge ended in the death of another teenager this past summer.<\/p>\n

According to Northampton County District Attorney Stephen Baratta, the teen was driving in the parking lot of Freedom High School in Bethlehem with an upside-down folding table tied to the back of his car. A 17-year-old friend, identified as Freedom High School junior David Nagy, was sitting on top of the table when he fell off and was killed.<\/p>\n

Baratta also announced charges in a separate but similar case involving 19-year-old Eniya Alvarado. She is accused of recklessly driving her vehicle near William Penn Highway in March while her 20-year-old friend stood on the trunk as part of another social media stunt. The friend fell and suffered permanent head injuries.<\/p>\n

Baratta said he called Tuesday’s news conference to raise awareness among parents about the dangers of these online trends.<\/p>\n

“Ultimately, it becomes a serious issue of public safety when children engage in these dangerous stunts,” he said.<\/p>\n

Parents in Bethlehem expressed concern over the influence of social media on teenagers.<\/p>\n

“It’s scary nowadays. You don’t know who to trust,” said Renita Ibarra.<\/p>\n

“I’m happy to say my kids were not on TikTok or social media at all, and they have no desire to,” said Victoria Vertel.<\/p>\n

“I’d like to think he is smart enough to see what’s going on and just be, like, you know, I say I would never do anything as crazy as that,” said a parent identified only as Lauren.<\/p>\n

Authorities are urging families to talk with their children about the risks of participating in viral challenges that can have life-altering or fatal consequences.<\/p>\n

The table surfing suspect is being charged as a juvenile with involuntary manslaughter.<\/p>\n

The female suspect from the other case is being charged as an adult with aggravated assault.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. (WPVI) — A 17-year-old from Northampton County is facing involuntary manslaughter charges after a social media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[953,153,155,154],"class_list":["post-772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-953","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772","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=772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}