HOLLIDAYSBURG — One of the Altoona teenagers involved in the 2024 New Year’s Day shooting is now on probation after his admission to a first-degree felony charge of aggravated assault.

Eli James Rodgers, 17, initially charged in Blair County’s adult court with four felony counts of aggravated assault and 15 misdemeanors, agreed Friday to have his case transferred to juvenile court, where he was adjudicated delinquent and agreed to be under supervision of the juvenile probation office through his 21st birthday.

“That’s your way of admitting that the Commonwealth has sufficient evidence to convict you,” President Judge Wade A. Kagarise told Rodgers, represented in court by defense attorney Mark Zearfaus, who petitioned for the transfer.

Zearfaus said the juvenile probation office will impose supervisory conditions on Rodgers, including ones such as observing a curfew and holding a job.

Rodgers was one of seven teenagers Altoona police arrested and charged in 2024 after an early morning shootout on the 700 block of Fourth Street during a confrontation that police concluded was a planned act of violence.

Police also arrested and charged Domenico Pezzuti, Imeen Whitaker, Ezekiel Williams, Hezikiah N. Stehley, James W. Fisher and Jay Seville, whose charges are still pending.

While no one was injured during the shootout, police collected evidence indicating that a bullet went through the window of an occupied residence and several bullets struck other areas of the residence, along with a garage, a storage building and a dumpster.

District Attorney Pete Weeks, in court Friday, told Kagarise that he was consenting to the transfer of Rodgers’ case to juvenile court with the adjudication and supervision.

“He was caught with a pellet gun while those shooting at him had real guns,” Weeks said. “That’s a mitigating factor.”

From witness testimony, surveillance video and interviews, Altoona police found that the teenagers were engaged in a long-standing dispute that included a Dec. 5, 2023, fight at Altoona Area High School. While Rodgers was identified as a target in the Jan. 1, 2024, dispute, charges indicate that he was the first to fire his pellet gun toward teenagers who were alleged to be threatening him, prompting them to fire at him.

“This incident was the result of a lot of bad behavior,” Weeks said before Friday’s court hearing began. “It’s good that no one got hurt, but (Rodgers) is lucky that their bullets missed.”

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-956-7456.