As shocking as news that a man had been shot during an apparent attempted robbery in the Talladega National Forest Sunday was, what the investigation into that crime uncovered was even more alarming.
According to Clay County Sheriff Jim Studdard, investigators from several agencies helped in a search that located an encampment in the Talladega National Forest, where the two women now charged with murder in the incident apparently stayed — and where authorities were confronted by a 5-year-old with a shotgun.
It began at about 11:30 a.m. Sunday, when 911 notified the sheriff’s office of a shooting on National Forest Service Road 600-3 near Cheaha Mountain. Clay County Rescue Squad and Shinbone Valley Volunteer Fire Department were dispatched, along with sheriff’s deputies and Lineville police.
They found 20-year-old Mikayla Paulus performing CPR on her longtime boyfriend, Adam Simjee, who had been shot. The couple, students at the University of Central Florida, made an impulsive trip to Cheaha before returning to school, Paulus told al.com.
First responders found another woman, suffering several gunshot wounds to the torso, on the ground nearby. The woman, identified as Yasmine Hider, was taken from the scene and flown from a landing zone for treatment, and remains hospitalized under the observation of the sheriff’s office.
Simjee, 22, died from the injuries he sustained, Studdard said, after Hider pulled a gun on him in an attempted robbery, and the two exchanged shots.
