A UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh doctor was killed in the early hours of Sept. 24 when a man broke into his Pittsburgh-area home and stabbed him and his wife repeatedly, according to police.
Idris Evans suffered multiple stab wounds in his Edgewood home on Sept. 24 alongside his wife, according to a criminal complaint. He was taken to a nearby hospital and died.
It's not clear how or if the suspect, who was arrested the same day, knew Evans.
Here's what to know.
UPMC doctor Idris Evans killed, wife injured in Pittsburgh area home attack
Elijah Hemmingway, a 32-year-old Pittsburgh man, was arrested on Sept. 24 on multiple charges, including criminal homicide, aggravated assault, criminal trespass and burglary. He broke into the family's home and stabbed Evans and his wife with a kitchen knife while they were asleep
just after midnight on Sept. 24, according to a criminal complaint. He was previously arrested in July on burglary and theft charges.
During the Sept. 24 attack, Evans suffered multiple severe stab wounds and died at UPMC Mercy in Pittsburgh, according to a criminal complaint. His wife was transported to AHN Forbes Regional Hospital in Monroeville.
Monroeville Police located Hemingway behind Linden Avenue, where they found him in his underwear and bleeding from cuts on his hands. He was detained and transported to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh.
Inside the family's home, law enforcement found a "sizable" amount of blood spread across the house, as well as a large kitchen knife in the third story bathroom with apparent blood on its surface. The kitchen window was open with apparent blood on its base, with a Leatherman-style multi-tool sitting nearby.
UPMC doctor's wife recalls knife attack at Pittsburgh area home
Police spoke with Evans' wife in the hospital, where she described waking up to the attack. She said she and Evans woke to Hemingway stabbing them with a kitchen knife in bed while saying something about God and being God. She said Evans called Hemingway by his first name, though she said she had never met Hemingway.
Evans' wife also described Hemingway using other objects from the bedroom as weapons, saying a mirror was broken during the attack. She and Evans attempted to fight back, and she called out for their two children to leave the home and go to a neighbor's house.
After he had stabbed them both, Hemingway demanded that Evans' wife give him the keys to her car, and she complied, she told police. She couldn't remember how he left the home.
Suspect in UPMC doctor killing says he was attacked first
While at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, Hemingway spoke with police about the attack. According to the complaint, he said Evans had invited him back to the family's home prior to the attack and that Evans allowed him inside.
Hemingway told police that Evans attacked him with a "Michael Myers"-style knife and that a fight broke out between him and the couple in the third-floor bedroom. Hemingway alleged that he had been stabbed in the back during the fight, though detectives confirmed that he did not have a stab wound on his back.
Hemingway said he disarmed Evans, then repeatedly stabbed both Evans and his wife with a knife and a broken piece of mirror from the floor. Then, Hemingway fled through the back door and hid in a nearby backyard.
Police noted that Hemingway was unable to provide details about where he met Evans, where he stowed the bike he said he rode to Evans' home and "other specifics to support his account," according to the complaint. They also noted that he did not have any visible injuries beside the cuts on his hands.
Who was UPMC doctor killed in home attack?
Evans was the co-medical director of UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh's pediatric transport team, as well as an assistant professor of critical care medicine, according to his profile on University of Pittsburgh's website. He received an undergraduate education in medicine at Pennsylvania State University before attending the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Drexel University College of Medicine. His residency and fellowship both took place at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
He was awarded the Outstanding Abstract Award by University of Pittsburgh's Department of Critical Care Medicine in 2018 on Mitchell P. Fink Scholar Day, as well as the Abstract Scholarship in 2018 by the American Thoracic Society International Conference.
Evans' work on pediatric sepsis in hospital settings has been published by The Journal of the American Medical Association and JAMA Pediatrics.
Finch Walker is the Pittsburgh Connect Reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Contact Walker at FWalker@usatodayco.com. Instagram: @finchwalker_. X: @_finchwalker.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: UPMC doctor Idris Evans killed in stabbing, suspect arrested
