A 27-year-old man is charged with murder after an Alabama high school cheerleader was critically injured in a shooting at teen gathering in east Jefferson County.
The shooting happened early Sunday in a wooded area near Alabama 75 and Clay-Palmerdale Road known as The Pit.
The preliminary information given to police was a fight started over a girl and shots rang out.
Multiple social media posts asking for prayers identified the teen girl as Kimber Mills, a cheerleader for Cleveland High School where she is a senior.
The teen girl’s friend tried to take her to the hospital by private vehicle.
They spotted a Trussville police officer on Gadsden Highway about 12:45 a.m. and stopped, said Trussville Police Chief Eric Rush.
Police called for medics and performed CPR on her there, and Trussville firefighters then took her to UAB Hospital, Rush said.
Rush said she was also shot in the leg, and officers put a tourniquet on that wound.
Sheriff’s spokesman Henry Irby said deputies were dispatched to the remote scene at 12:24 a.m.
They arrived to find three people wounded – two males ages 21 and 18 and an 18-year-old female.
Palmerdale Fire and Rescue, Center Point Fire and Rescue, and Trussville Fire and Rescue responded to the scene and transported the victims to hospitals.
Deputies learned that a fourth victim, a 20-year-old female, had been transported to a hospital by a personal vehicle.
Steven Tyler Whitehead, 27, is charged with murder and is being held without bond in the Jefferson County Jail.
Whitehead, of Brookwood, was booked into the jail at 11:40 a.m. Sunday.
Authorities have not said who died in the shooting, but Mills was the most seriously wounded victim and was last reported to be in critical condition.
“We’re asking our community come together in prayer for Kimber and her family,” Cleveland Panther Football posted on Facebook.
Another post stated: “Heavenly Father, we lift up Kimber to you today. Lord, she’s fighting a battle no one should ever have to face, and we ask that you wrap her in your healing arms.”
Sheriff’s officials said they will release more information once it becomes available.