Couple Tries To Help Stranded Woman Then Their Blood Ran Cold

A Florida college student was shot and killed in Alabama on Sunday trying to protect himself and his girlfriend after they were held at gunpoint by a woman who claimed to be having trouble with her car, according to the Clay County (Alabama) Sheriff’s Office.

Adam Simjee and his girlfriend, Mikayla Paulus, both hail from Apopka, Florida, and attended the University of Central Florida. They were driving along a road when “flagged down” by Yasmine Hider, who “asked the couple if they could give her some assistance to help get her car started.”

“When the couple attempted to assist Hider, she produced a gun and made the couple walk back into the woods,” the news release said. While in the woods, Simjee pulled out a gun, and “there was an exchange of gunfire.”

Simjee was shot and killed, authorities said. Hider was shot multiple times and taken to the hospital. Paulus, Simjee’s girlfriend was not injured.

The Sheriff’s Office said at some point after the shooting, Paulus noticed another woman “standing in the woods nearby observing what was going on.” The woman was later identified as Krystal Diane Pinkins.

Deputies said Hider asked Pinkins for help, but she ran away. It was at this point that Paulus was able to get her cell phone and call 911. When first responders arrived at the scene, they found Paulus performing CPR on her boyfriend.

Paulus said Hider began asking for their bank account numbers shortly after they stopped to help her. She said Hider shot Simjee in the stomach.

She described her boyfriend as a “hero” who protected her at the cost of his own life.

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office said it received information that there may be a group of people who were “living off the grid” nearby in the Talladega National Forest, and described the group as “armed and potentially violent.”

Deputies and a dog tracking team found a “base camp” and a large group of tents about a half-mile from where the couple was robbed, according to the news release.

There, deputies found Pinkins and a young child, who was holding a “loaded shotgun.” The child put down the weapon, and Pinkins was arrested. The child was placed in state custody.

CCSO said Pinkins was arrested on charges of endangering the welfare of a child, murder, kidnapping, and robbery. Hider, who remains at the hospital, faces charges of murder, kidnappings, and robbery.