Ghanaian Woman In Florida Killed

West Palm Beach, Florida -- Ayisha Schuette, 41, died about 9 p.m. Saturday after she was struck by two vehicles just south of Gun Club Road, attempting to cross the busy street west of West Palm Beach.

Schuette was a native of Ghana who came to the United States 17 years ago, according to James Schuette, her ex-husband. She had worked for the school system for 15 years as an aide on buses for special-needs students.


Two people remained hospitalized, one in critical condition, Monday in the aftermath of two separate car-pedestrian collisions.


About 90 minutes after Aisha was hit, three people, including the driver of one of the cars that had struck Schuette, were standing in the median of the road when they were hit by a northbound van driven by Emma J. Williams, 42, of Riviera Beach. Injured were Charles S. Cupples, 20; Mala Charran, 44; and George S. George, 55.


Cupples, of Lake Worth, was the driver of one of the cars that hit Schuette. Charran and George, of West Palm Beach, were described as family members who had come to comfort Cupples, the Highway Patrol said.


Cupples was reported in critical condition Monday at Delray Medical Center. George was in serious condition in the same hospital. Charran apparently had been treated and released.


Schuette apparently was headed for a convenience store a short distance from her home on Dyson Circle when she stepped into the path of a car driven by Alexander Victoria, 16, of Lake Worth.

Cupples, in the southbound lane next to Victoria's SUV, then hit Schuette when she was thrown into his path. She was pronounced dead at the scene.


Robert Reynolds, a friend of Schuette's, said they had talked by telephone just minutes before she was hit.


"She said she was going to the store for cigarettes. And she needed a calling card, and some Lotto tickets," Reynolds said.


"She was such a good person," he added. "She loved kids and stayed with her job a long time because of that."


Schuette leaves two children, Michaela Schuette, 17, a senior at Palm Beach Lakes High School, and an adult son. Funeral arrangements are pending.