LAKE MARY, Fla. - A University of Central Florida student was killed while protecting his girlfriend during an attack in Alabama last weekend, authorities said.
A woman accused of killing that student was "living off the grid" in a wooded area near the Talladega National Forest, according to deputies.Heather Lambert tells FOX 35 News that her daughter, Mikaya Paulus, was traumatized as she watched her boyfriend of more than four years, Adam Simjee, die in her arms.
She is still shaken by a call she received from her daughter."She’s like, 'Adam’s been shot! He might be dead!' I was like, 'Tell me you’re joking.' She said, 'I’m not!'Deputies said a woman, later identified as Yasmine Hider, waved them down saying she had car trouble.
The two tried to help her but deputies said Hider attempted to rob them at gunpoint and began asking them for money and their bank account numbers.She then pushed the couple into the woods, where Simjee pulled out a gun he had concealed in his waistband.MORE NEWS: Tyre Sampson's father wants memorial by ride where son died"At some point, she (Hider) put her guard down and put the gun down (and) that’s when Adam pulled his gun out and told her to get on the ground," Lambert said.Authorities said Hider shot him, and then he returned fire."I don't know how Mikayla didn't get shot in all of that, but she had taken off her shirt to stop the bleeding, and then she called 911 and was giving him chest compressions," Lambert said.Simjee died in the woods.