Elijah Hemingway, the man charged with murdering a Pittsburgh pediatric doctor, once told Florida police he was the reincarnation of King Tutankhamun during a manic parking lot episode captured on bodycam.
Hemingway, 32, leaped across vehicles in Daytona while officers tried to assess whether he posed a danger to himself or others, according to footage obtained by WPXI. An officer can be heard asking the standard screening question about harmful intentions.
“No, I am a spirit. I am not a physical being,” Hemingway fired back in the video.
He then declared, “I am King Tutankhamun,” professing to be the ancient Egyptian pharaoh reborn.
That 2023 Florida incident produced three of Hemingway’s 22 prior criminal charges. Another three stemmed from alleged assaults on a girlfriend, authorities said. The pattern of erratic, violent encounters with both police and partners deepens the questions surrounding his recent release before Thursday’s fatal break-in.
Court records show Hemingway was arrested in July on burglary and theft charges from a separate February home invasion. He walked free within hours on “non-monetary bail,” The Post reported. The release cleared the path for him to reach Allegheny County, where he allegedly broke into Dr. Idris Evans’ home just after 12:30 a.m. Thursday.
Gina Evans, the physician’s wife, told police that Hemingway appeared “psychotic” and wore only underwear when he burst through their door. He ranted about God and “being God” as the couple tried to defend themselves against the knife-wielding intruder, she said, citing court documents reported by WPXI.
In a harrowing detail, Gina Evans said her husband yelled “Elijah” during the attack, as though he recognized the man who was killing him. Hemingway later claimed he had been invited to the house, but officials could not substantiate his account. He could not explain to investigators how he knew Evans at all.
The couple’s children, ages 8 and 12, escaped to a neighbor’s home after their mother instructed them to run. Gina Evans survived with severe stab wounds. Her husband, a pediatric critical care physician and co-Medical Director of UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh’s Pediatric Transport Team, did not.
Hemingway remained hospitalized at UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh on Friday following the attack.
The medical community mourned the loss of a specialist who also served as Assistant Professor of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. “The UPMC and University of Pittsburgh community is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Dr. Idris Evans, 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,” the health system said in a statement to WPXI.