Pittsburgh-Area Pediatric Critical Care Doctor Killed in Home Stabbing

Dr. Idris Evans, a pediatric critical care physician at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, was fatally stabbed and his wife critically wounded during an attack in their Edgewood home early Thursday, Allegheny County police said.

Officers responding around 12:30 a.m. found Evans, 46, and his wife with multiple stab wounds. According to a criminal complaint, the couple were asleep in their third-floor bedroom when they awoke to a man attacking them with a kitchen knife. Their children, ages 8 and 12, escaped unharmed after their mother told them to run to a neighbor’s home.

Evans was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. His wife remained hospitalized in critical condition. Police arrested Elijah Hemingway, 32, after a K9 unit found him behind a nearby house. He was treated for cuts to his hand and charged with homicide, aggravated assault and burglary.

Investigators believe Hemingway entered through a rear window. The complaint says Evans’ wife heard her husband address the attacker as Elijah, though she said she did not know him. Hemingway told investigators Evans had invited him inside and later attacked him, but police said he provided no details about how they knew each other. Authorities recovered a large kitchen knife with apparent blood from a bathroom.

TribLIVE and WTAE also reported that Hemingway faces separate charges in connection with a sexual assault in Wilkinsburg.

UPMC described Evans, also an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, as a dedicated caregiver and valued member of the hospital and university communities.