Steven Tyler Whitehead, 28, is charged with murder and attempted murder after shooting four people at an Alabama bonfire party on October 19, 2025. Eighteen-year-old Kimber Mills, a Cleveland High School senior and cheerleader who planned to enroll at the University of Alabama, was hit in the head and died.

Jefferson County sheriff officials said a dispute that started verbally then turned physical ended in gunfire. Survivor Silas McCay said he and a friend confronted Whitehead after hearing he had been bothering Mills, fought him, and McCay threw him down; once a friend pulled McCay off, Whitehead drew a pistol and opened fire.

Whitehead remains free on bond and will argue at a December hearing that Alabama law justified the shots as self-defense, seeking dismissal of the charges.