Inset, left to right: Dr. Idris Evans (UPMC) and Elijah Hemingway (Volusia County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The home where Hemingway allegedly killed Evans (WPXI).
A 32-year-old man in Pennsylvania is accused of fatally stabbing a Pittsburgh doctor and critically injuring the physician’s wife after he allegedly entered through a rear window of the couple’s home while they slept and violently attacked them.
Elijah Hemingway was arrested and charged with one count each of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, burglary and criminal trespass in connection with the death of 46-year-old Idris Evans, authorities announced.
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According to a press release from the Allegheny County Police Department, officers responded to a report of a stabbing at 12:31 a.m. Thursday in the 100 block of Linden Avenue in Edgewood. Upon arriving, first responders found Evans and his wife suffering from multiple stab wounds and transported both to a local hospital, where they were listed in critical condition. Evans was later pronounced dead, while his wife remained in critical condition.
A K-9 unit with the Monroeville Police Department located Hemingway hiding behind a nearby home and detained him. He was treated at the hospital for lacerations to his hand, police said.
During a Thursday news conference, Allegheny County Police Assistant Superintendent Victor Joseph said investigators determined the couple was in their bedroom when a man entered the residence armed with a knife and attacked them.
“It was a very violent scene,” Joseph said. “The bedroom furniture broken, mirrors broken. It was a very graphic scene.”
Police believe Hemingway entered through a rear window of their residence. Evans’ wife told investigators that she woke up to find the attacker stabbing her and her husband, according to a criminal complaint obtained by TribLive. She said the man was wearing only underwear, carrying a kitchen knife and repeatedly referring to God and “being God.”
Evidence showed the couple defended themselves from Hemingway, whose hand injuries did not appear to have been self-inflicted, Joseph said.
“It sounds like they tried to fight him off and maybe even tried to use a mirror in the process,” Joseph said.
The couple’s two children were also home. Joseph said they were able to get out of the house and flee to a neighbor’s residence without being injured.
Evans’ wife told investigators that while she had never seen Hemingway before that evening, her husband appeared to know him. She recalled that he referred to the attacker as “Elijah” during the assault. However, the wife also was unsure if Hemingway identified himself by name before her husband’s comment.
Police have not conclusively determined whether Hemingway and Evans knew each other or whether Hemingway had any prior connection to Edgewood.
At some point during the attack, Hemingway demanded Evans’ wife’s car keys. She gave them to him, but Joseph said there was no indication that he took or attempted to take the vehicle.
The woman eventually escaped the home and contacted police.
Hemingway later gave investigators a different account of what happened, according to the criminal complaint.
He reportedly claimed that Evans had invited him to the house and allowed him inside. Once inside, he claimed Evans then tried to stab him with a “Michael Myers”-type knife. Hemingway reportedly said he disarmed Evans and stabbed the couple in self-defense.
“There’s no evidence to support that,” Joseph said of Hemingway’s story.
Investigators have not announced a motive and said they were still working to determine why Hemingway allegedly entered the home.
Evans was a pediatric critical-care physician at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and an assistant professor of critical care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.
Hemingway is being held in the Allegheny County Jail without bond. A date for his arraignment hearing had not been set as of Friday afternoon.
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