The man accused of fatally stabbing a prominent children’s doctor as he slept beside his wife had previously faced allegations of breaking into another Pittsburgh home. Despite that case, he was released back into the community in July.
Elijah Hemingway, 32, is charged with killing Dr. Idris Evans, 46, after allegedly entering the pediatric specialist’s family home through an open window.
Authorities say Hemingway carried out a violent knife attack in the Evans family’s bedroom shortly after 12:30 a.m. Thursday.
According to police, he climbed through an open window at the Edgewood, Allegheny County, residence before going upstairs to the bedroom where Evans and his wife were sleeping.
Records now show that Hemingway was already facing burglary and theft charges tied to an alleged February break-in at the home of a former partner, authorities said.
Police did not arrest him in that case until July 9. He was released the next day, on July 10, while the charges were still pending.
Investigators alleged that Hemingway forced his way into the woman’s home on Overbeck Street in Pittsburgh while she was taking her child to day care.
A laptop and two iPhones were reportedly taken from the property.
The woman told police that Hemingway had never lived in the house and had no permission to enter it.
Elijah Shamaul Maleke Hemingway, 32, faces charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, burglary and criminal trespass in connection with Dr. Idris Evans’ death.
Dr. Idris Evans, 46, was a pediatric critical care physician and medical director at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Evans and his wife were asleep when they awoke to a terrifying knife attack. Their children, ages eight and 12, were also inside the home but were not injured.
Hemingway was charged with burglary and theft by unlawful taking in the earlier case, but he was ultimately released from jail as the proceedings continued.
That February burglary allegation was not Hemingway’s first encounter with the law, according to records reviewed by Pittsburgh’s Action News 4.
In Florida in 2025, Hemingway was accused of assaulting three sheriff’s deputies after allegedly causing a disturbance at a Wells Fargo bank.
Police said he left the bank and walked toward the Deltona Plaza Shopping Center, where he allegedly began making troubling statements.
According to authorities, Hemingway told one deputy that the officer was part of a simulation. He also allegedly identified himself at one point as an Egyptian pharaoh.
He then allegedly fled and jumped onto several parked vehicles.
One deputy planned to have Hemingway evaluated under Florida’s Baker Act, which permits the involuntary detention of people who meet certain criteria for a mental health assessment. But police said Hemingway turned around and punched the deputy when the officer pursued him.
Additional deputies arrived and attempted to restrain him. Authorities alleged that Hemingway struck and shoved one deputy, pushed another and kicked a third.
Hemingway, 32, seen here in handcuffs in the back of ambulance is accused of entering the family home through an open window before making his way upstairs
Hemingway was allegedly found hiding behind a nearby home after the attack with injuries to his hand.
‘It was a very violent scene,’ Allegheny County Assistant Superintendent Victor Joseph said. ‘The bedroom furniture was broken, mirrors broken. It was a very graphic scene.’
Hemingway was charged and later pleaded no contest to battery of a law enforcement officer.
In another Florida case that year, Hemingway was accused of attacking an ex-girlfriend with whom he lived in Deltona.
During an argument, authorities alleged he repeatedly punched the woman and grabbed her by the neck.
The terrified woman told police she fled into a bathroom with her son, locked the door and called for help.
When deputies arrived, Hemingway allegedly refused to speak with them and insisted he had done nothing wrong.
A criminal complaint in that case noted that a records check revealed ‘multiple prior arrested for assault and aggravated assault in Pennsylvania with no prosecution.’
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala has also said authorities are investigating whether Hemingway could be connected to a sexual assault case in the county.
Meanwhile, Dr Evans’ killing has devastated his colleagues and neighbors.
The respected doctor was medical director of the Pediatric Critical Care Transport Team at UPMC Children’s Hospital and an assistant professor of critical care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Evans’ wife was also stabbed but managed to escape and raise the alarm despite suffering serious injuries
Evans’ devastated colleagues remembered him as a ‘dedicated caregiver and valued member’ of the hospital and university communities
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‘Dr. Evans was a dedicated caregiver and valued member of our hospital and university communities,’ UPMC said.
‘Our thoughts are with his family, loved ones, and colleagues during this difficult time. We ask that their privacy be respected.’
A heartbreaking GoFundMe page set up for Evans’ wife and their two young children paid tribute to the doctor remembering him ‘a father, a husband, a brother, a friend, and one of the best humans that I had the opportunity to know.’
‘If you were lucky enough to have ever met him, he probably made you laugh,’ the organizer, Neil Devani, wrote. ‘Unless you were one of his patients, in which case he probably saved your life… and made you laugh.’
The tribute told how Evans had spent more than a decade caring for some of the sickest children in and around Pittsburgh after choosing ‘one of the hardest paths in medicine’ – pediatric critical care.
As medical director of the Pediatric Transport Team at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Evans also helped lead other doctors and medical professionals fighting to save children’s lives.
‘The choice to do that kind of work, subjecting yourself to the repeated heartbreak of losing children just to have the opportunity to save the ones you can, perfectly epitomizes the type of man that Idris Evans was,’ the tribute said.
‘He was the best of us.’
Away from the hospital, Evans was remembered as a devoted family man who was ‘full of jokes, a loving husband and father, and a great friend.’
Edgewood police acknowledged the shock rippling through the community following the brutal killing.
‘We are a small and close-knit community and we are sure that many of you may be feeling shaken today,’ the department said.
‘You may be sad, angry, anxious, distracted, or just having a hard time making sense of what happened.’
Evans’ wife told investigators she awoke to a nightmare: Hemingway, clad only in his underwear and allegedly wielding a kitchen knife, attacking the couple.
‘It was a very violent scene – the bedroom furniture broken, mirrors broken. It was a very graphic scene,’ Allegheny County Police Assistant Superintendent Victor Joseph said.
Evans and his wife desperately fought back, according to the criminal complaint.
Elijah Hemingway is shown being arrested for domestic battery on March 19, 2026, in bodycam footage from the Volusia Sheriff’s Office in Florida
Hemingway, seen smirking in this March 2025 mugshot had previously been accused of breaking into an ex-partner’s Pittsburgh home and stealing electronics just months ago
Neighbor Sandra Trappen awoke to the sight of police swarming the normally quiet neighborhood before discovering the man officers were hunting was hiding in her backyard
Investigators are seen at the site of the home gathering evidence related to the attack
His wife recalled her husband addressing their alleged attacker as ‘Elijah’ during the struggle, although investigators have said it remains unclear whether Evans and Hemingway knew one another or whether Hemingway had told him his name.
She also recalled the intruder making a bizarre reference to ‘being God.’
Despite suffering serious injuries herself, Evans’ wife managed to break free.
She screamed for the couple’s two children, aged eight and 12, to get out before escaping to a neighbor’s home and calling police.
Officers arriving at the house found Evans and his wife suffering from multiple stab wounds.
Both were rushed to hospital in critical condition, but doctors were unable to save Evans.
Hemingway was later discovered hiding behind a nearby home with injuries to his hand.
Neighbor Sandra Trappen said she woke to police flooding the normally quiet neighborhood before realizing the suspect they were hunting was concealed in her own backyard.
‘I was going to walk out in the backyard, and then all of the officers rushed through the backyard, so I just kind of stayed back,’ Trappen told WTAE.
‘Once they found him, he appeared to be bleeding and incapacitated,’ she added.
‘He had found a way to conceal himself, but apparently he was injured and bleeding.’
Hemingway was detained and taken to a hospital for treatment.
Police said he later claimed Evans had invited him to the house hours before the attack and alleged that the doctor and his wife attacked him.
Authorities said Hemingway could not provide details to substantiate that account.
He has been charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, burglary and criminal trespass.
