Florida Student’s Harrowing Tale of Boyfriend’s Murder Includes Lessons People Need

No one deserves to be murdered in cold blood. No one deserves to be the victim of any crime.

But there are times when we can examine what happened leading up to someone’s death and comprehend just what mistakes might have been made. Take a look at what happened in Seattle, for example. There are a ton of lessons on every side of things there, mostly in what not to do. In fact, finding what not to do is often easier than understanding what someone should do.

Recently, a story dropped about the murder of a young man. His girlfriend recounted what happened, and it’s an awful tragedy, but we can learn from what happened and not make the same mistake ourselves.

Mikayla Paulus and Adam Simjee’s road trip through Alabama was meant to celebrate a new journey in the couple’s relationship as they set to begin studying together at the University of Central Florida next week. Instead, it ended with Paulus’ boyfriend of four years killed in the woods of the Talladega National Forest near Cheaha State Park.

It began Sunday morning when Paulus and Simjee visited Mount Cheaha before they planned to continue on their trip to Arkansas. They were driving alongNational Forrest Service Road 600-3 when Paulus found a woman who had seemingly broke down on the side of the road. They decided whether or not to pull over. Fate then seemed to intervene.

“He had just bought this huge battery pack and made sure that we charged it the night before,” Paulus recalled. She herself is also the daughter of a mechanic. For the next hour they worked on the woman’s car in a vain attempt to get it started. Then Paulus described how their act of kindness became a nightmare.

“At the end when nothing could be done, she pulled out a gun and walked (us) into the woods.”

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office later identified the armed robber as Yasmine Hider. As they walked into the woods, Paulus said Hider demanded they drop their cell phones and give her their banking passwords. But this young girl from Florida knew something their attacker didn’t.

“Adam had his gun on him the whole time because he said, ‘This is how people get robbed,'” she said, “So I was just waiting on him to use it.”

Paulus described what happened next, “Adam pulled out his gun and told her to get on the ground and that’s when she started messing around with her gun. It jammed once but they both shot at each other and she was shot a few times and he was shot only once.”

Unfortunately, only once was enough to end the young man’s life.

Now, it seems to me that Simjee thought something felt off about the situation, hence his comment, “This is how people get robbed.” It suggests something felt hinky, but his desire to help overrode it.

Don’t let that happen.

The truth of the matter is that there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that when you get the heebie-jeebies about a situation, it’s because your subconscious has picked up on a lot of clues that something isn’t right, and it’s trying to warn you. This has happened in countless places, including war, but often we hear about people who knew something wasn’t right but didn’t listen to their gut, only to find out it was right.

Listen to it. Sure, it might be wrong, but you’ll be safe.

I get the desire to help others. It’s something that we as humans do to such a degree that no other species on the planet seems to do. We will lay down our lives for another, willingly, even when it makes no sense regarding the propagation of the species. Helping someone with a broken-down car doesn’t seem like a big deal, and it shouldn’t be.

Unfortunately, predators like to prey on good people. They want to take advantage of their kindness, and because of them, it’s risky to help in a situation like that.

Now, Simjee had a gun. It sounded like he was prepared for not everyone to be nice and kind. That’s good.

However, it also sounds like he wasn’t mentally prepared to use it. He did pull the gun, but then he issued commands. Folks, you’re not a police officer. They’re required to issue those commands. We, as armed citizens, are not. If you’re justified in pulling the gun, you’re justified in shooting unless something changes first. Had she dropped the weapon, then yeah, don’t shoot. Otherwise, you start firing and don’t stop until they’re clearly no threat anymore.

And honestly, he should have pulled that gun before being walked into the woods, if at all possible. Nothing good comes from being waltzed into a thick stand of trees away from potential witnesses, especially if the other party was willing to rob you in broad daylight to start with. Don’t put yourself in that position.

Especially as it seems the accused killer had a partner in the woods. When authorities arrested the duo, there was also a five-year-old child with a shotgun running around the encampment these two were calling home. That suggests there was another potential killer in their midst, which is another reason to avoid being marched off into concealment.

The whole thing is awful, but try to learn from it if at all possible. Don’t fail to listen to the voices warning you. You might be wrong, but caution is rarely a bad idea at a time like that.

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