Shooting in Talladega National Forest leads to discovery of camp, child
A Florida college student exploring the Alabama wilderness with his girlfriend has died in a gunfight with a robber posing as a stranded driver, authorities say.
Authorities said the death led to the discovery of an “off-grid” plantation in the woods, two arrests and law enforcement confronting a 5-year-old boy armed with an handgun at camp.
Adam Simjee, 22, and his girlfriend, Mikayla Paulus – both students at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida – were driving in Talladega National Forest near the famous Cheaha State Park in eastern Alabama on Sunday when a woman, Yasmine Hider, flagged them down and asked for help with her car, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office said.
Hider then pulled out a gun and ordered them into the woods, sheriff officials said. That’s when Simjee was carrying a gun he was carrying and the pair engaged in a gunfight, Clay County Sheriff Jim Studdard said.
“Adam pulled out a gun and told her to lie on the ground, and that’s when she started messing with her gun. It stuck once but they both shot at each other and she was shot a few times and he was shot only once,” said Mikayla Paulus, Simjee’s 20-year-old girlfriend. WBMA-TVa branch of ABC.
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Simjee died despite the efforts of Paulus, who was performing CPR on him when authorities arrived, a statement from sheriff officials said. She was not injured.
Hider was shot multiple times and underwent surgery at Birmingham hospital. Authorities said she was awaiting transfer to prison and would face charges of murder, kidnapping and robbery.
Officials are looking for a second suspect, and during the investigation they learned there may be a group of people “living off the grid” in the national forest, the sheriff’s office said in a statement. The Alabama Department of Corrections used tracking dogs and found a group of tents set up in the national forest about a mile from the boundary of Cheaha State Park.
The officers saw a woman, Krystal Diane Pinkins, as they approached the camp and ordered her to the ground. According to Studdard, that was when a child ran out of the woods holding a loaded pistol.
Authorities said they told the 5-year-old boy to put down his handgun, but he continued to approach the woman, who authorities later discovered was his mother, before killing him. weapon down.
The local Human Resources Department was notified and took custody of the child. Pinkins, 36, was arrested on suspicion of endangering the welfare of a child, murder, two counts of kidnapping and two counts of robbery.
Studdard said it appeared no one else was using the camp at the time. It was about half a mile from where the robbery took place. Forest service officials say camping in Talladega National Forest is legal, but only for 21 days at a time.
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The sheriff said the campsite has been turned over to national forest law enforcement, who will demolish it.
Court records do not show whether Hider or Pinkins, who are located in Memphis, Tennessee, have attorneys who can speak for them.
Simjee and Paulus are getting ready to start the school year at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, she said AL.com.
“We start school on Monday, so we wanted to make one last trip,” she said.
Paulus told the news site: “I’ve lost the love of my life. “This will stay with me forever.”
Contribution: Associated Press
Contact Gadsden Times reporter Donna Thornton at [email protected].