The man charged with stabbing a Pittsburgh pediatrician to death in his own bed had been released without bail on a prior burglary case, court records show, another free pass that ended in bloodshed.
Elijah Hemingway, 32, of Pittsburgh, now faces criminal homicide and six other counts after Allegheny County police say he broke into a family’s Edgewood home and attacked a sleeping couple with a kitchen knife.
Fox News reported that court documents tie Hemingway to a July arrest linked to a February burglary, and show he was let go without bail on that charge before the deadly home invasion.
Dr. Idris Evans, 46, was pronounced dead at the hospital at 1:42 a.m. His wife was stabbed, fled barefoot for help, and remains hospitalized in stable condition. Their children, ages 8 and 12, were home when the attack unfolded.
Police say the break-in hit the Linden Avenue house around 12:30 a.m. Thursday. Within a minute, a neighbor was on the phone with 911.
Evans’ wife told investigators they woke to a man in their bed attacking them with a kitchen knife. She described the attacker as appearing “psychotic” and said he claimed to be “God” while wearing only underwear.
She also told police her husband appeared to address the man by name, calling him “Elijah,” though she said she had never seen him before.
She escaped to a neighbor’s house. That neighbor called 911 at about 12:31 a.m. Officers arrived roughly three minutes later.
Blood was found on a kitchen windowsill and an exterior door. Both victims were rushed to the hospital. Evans, a father and working physician, did not survive.
A manhunt followed. Monroeville Police K-9 Channy located Hemingway two doors from the crime scene. He was still wearing nothing but underwear.
Authorities arrested him and filed seven charges, including criminal homicide, aggravated assault, burglary, and trespassing.
In statements to police described in the affidavit, Hemingway claimed Dr. Evans had invited him inside. He also claimed the doctor stabbed him in the back first.
Court documents cut that story down fast. Hemingway “did not have a stab wound on his back.” Investigators noted no injuries beyond cuts on his hands, injuries consistent with driving a blade, not surviving one.
"[He] did not have a stab wound on his back."
That finding, drawn from the court file, left his self-defense tale without physical support.
Hemingway’s county courthouse record runs back to 2016. His most recent prior arrest came in July in connection with a burglary from February. On that case, he was released without bail.
He was free when police say he entered the Evans home in the middle of the night, armed himself with a kitchen knife, and attacked a sleeping family.
No public motive has been stated. What is on paper is simpler and harder to shrug off: a defendant with a multi-year rap sheet, a fresh burglary case, zero bail, and then a homicide charge after a doctor was killed in bed while his kids slept under the same roof.
Evans was medical director of the Pediatric Critical Care Transport Team at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. He also served as an assistant professor of critical care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
By day he helped move critically ill children to care. By night he was a husband and father in a quiet Edgewood neighborhood, until an intruder ended that life before 2 a.m.
A GoFundMe campaign was launched to benefit the Evans family as the case moved from crime scene to charging documents.
Police acted in minutes. A K-9 did its job. Prosecutors stacked serious counts. None of that revise the earlier choice to send a burglary defendant out the door with no bail, and no sure way to keep him from the next unlocked window or kitchen drawer.
When courts treat break-in cases as no-bail routine, families pay the balance. A Pittsburgh pediatrician paid with his life.
