Anastasia Simms

Anastasia Simms, a 17-year-old Black female, was born on June 26, 2003. Her life was tragically cut short when she and a friend were killed in a shooting in San Antonio, Texas, in the winter of 2021.

In the early morning hours of Sunday, February 14, 2021, an assailant stood outside an apartment at the Cottage Creek Apartments on Ray Bon Drive and fired several shots into the home. Police were called to the Northeast Side complex between 12:45 a.m. and 1:15 a.m. for reports of the gunfire. When officers entered the apartment, they found Anastasia and her friend, 19-year-old Leah Anders, in the living room. Both young women had been shot multiple times and were pronounced dead at the scene. A third person inside the home, a man named Remus Blair, was also struck by bullets but survived his injuries.

The investigation led police to a fellow resident of the apartment complex, 22-year-old Abdi Ali Shidad. He was arrested in connection with the shooting. In April 2021, a Bexar County grand jury returned an indictment against Shidad, charging him with capital murder of multiple people. The indictment alleged that Shidad shot and killed Anastasia and Leah on February 13, 2021, and it also accused him of shooting Remus Blair.

If convicted on the capital murder charge, Shidad faces a potential sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. Following the indictment in April 2021, the case against him began proceeding through the court system.