Cleveland HS cheerleader dies after organ donation in Pinson shooting

An 18-year-old Cleveland High School cheerleader who was critically wounded by gunfire at a weekend gathering in eastern Jefferson County has died after donating her organs, her family said. Kimber Mills was shot early Sunday at a wooded bonfire area known locally as The Pit near Alabama 75 and Clay‑Palmerdale Road in Pinson. Three other people were also injured, and a 27‑year‑old man has been arrested and charged in connection with the shootings, authorities said.

Jefferson County deputies were dispatched about 12:24 a.m. Sunday to the remote scene and found multiple victims, the sheriff’s office said. Trussville police officers and local fire crews provided emergency aid and transported victims to hospitals. Mills sustained gunshot wounds to the head and leg and was taken to UAB Hospital in Birmingham, where doctors told her family her brain injuries were not survivable, according to her sister, Ashley Mills.

Family members said Mills had been at the gathering with friends when a man identified as Steven Tyler Whitehead, 27, arrived and attempted to engage with people there. A verbal altercation escalated into a physical fight, and shots were fired, the family said. Mills, a...