Woman Pretending To Be Stranded Fatally Shoots Student Who Tried Helping Her

An opportunistic robber who pretended to be a damsel in distress, gunned down a University of Central Florida student who was exploring the wilderness in eastern Alabama with his girlfriend.

The couple, Adam Simjee, 22, and Mikayla Paulus, 20, were driving through the Talladega National Forest on Sunday morning when they were stopped by a woman, identified as Yasmine Hider.

Hider reportedly sought the couple's help with her car, and Simjee and Paulus tried to figure out what was wrong with the vehicle for almost an hour. When Simjee told Hider there was nothing they could do, she pulled a gun on him, according to Miami Herald.

"She pulled a gun, said put your hands up, walk into the woods and drop your phone and keys,'' Paulus recalled the incident.

When Hider demanded they surrender their cellphones and bank passwords, Simjee produced his own concealed weapon. "Adam pulled out his gun and told her to get on the ground and that's when she started messing around with her gun," Paulus told People, "It jammed once but they both shot at each other and she was shot a few times and he was shot only once."

As she was severely wounded in the shootout, Hider called out for help. That's when a 36-year-old woman, identified as Krystal Diane Pinkins, came from the woods to help her. Pinkins was observing the entire situation unfold from afar, Miami Herald noted.

In an attempt to stop Simjee's bleeding, Paulus used her shirt as a tourniquet and even attempted CPR on him but failed to help him regain consciousness. She found her phone and immediately called 911.

The camp where Pinkins was hiding was found using a tracking team and a state helicopter. The woman's 5-year-old son fled from the woods with a loaded shotgun as the cops detained the mother, according to sheriff's officials.

Pinkins was arrested and taken to the Clay County jail. She was charged with endangering the welfare of a child in addition to the other counts, Channel 8 reported. Hider, whose age was not revealed, was taken to the Birmingham hospital in Alabama for surgery.

According to the sheriff's statement, the women may have been living "off the grid" in the national forest when their camp was destroyed by forest personnel.

Simjee and Paulus were looking forward to starting their school year together Monday before the tragedy occurred.

"No words can begin to describe the shock and pain I'm in. We had our entire lives ahead of us. Adam is the best person I've ever met on the face of this entire planet," Paulus mourned the death of her long-time boyfriend in a post on Facebook. "He was the purest soul and he made sure I knew I would be safe when I was with him."

Heartbroken by his sudden death, Paulus described him as "an angel on earth."

"Everyone who met him loved him. He was always making jokes and being goofy. Him dying a hero to protect me, like that is just so him," she wrote.

Both the women have been charged with one count of murder, two counts of kidnapping, and two counts of robbery, according to the sheriff's office.