Body camera footage from Florida shows 2025 arrests of suspect in Pittsburgh doctor's death

New body camera footage shows Elijah Hemingway's encounters with authorities in Florida a year before he was arrested in Pennsylvania after police said he stabbed a children's doctor to death while he slept next to his wife. 

Hemingway, 32, is accused of killing Dr. Idris Evans and injuring Gina Evans at their home on Linden Avenue on Thursday. Police said Hemingway climbed in through a window and stabbed the couple in their bed. Their two children, ages 8 and 12, were home at the time. A motive is under investigation, and police said they're looking into whether Evans and Hemingway knew each other.  

Arrested twice in Florida 

The Volusia Sheriff's Office in Florida explained in a Facebook post on Friday that 32-year-old Elijah Hemingway was arrested twice last year. In March 2025, he was charged with domestic battery after a woman told investigators he grabbed her by the back of the neck, forced her onto a bed and punched her in the head. 

A month later, the Volusia Sheriff's Office said Hemingway assaulted deputies in a parking lot after a bank employee called them to complain about Hemingway making threats "during a tirade" inside the branch. 

In body camera footage shared by the Volusia Sheriff's Office with KDKA-TV, a deputy can be seen chasing Hemingway around the parking lot as he dodges around cars, at one point running up the hood of a car and jumping off the top. 

The Volusia Sheriff's Office said the court ordered Hemingway to be held involuntarily for mental health treatment. Several months later, he was deemed competent, pleaded no contest to his charges and was sentenced to time served. 

KDKA learned a court-ordered competency evaluation out of Florida found Hemingway suffered from a mental illness that interfered with his ability to understand his case and work with an attorney. The doctor also found a substantial likelihood he could be a danger to himself or others without treatment.

Released after Pittsburgh burglary

Eight months later, he wound up in Allegheny County. He was arrested again in July after his former partner told police he broke into her home in the Spring Hill-City View neighborhood and stole two iPhones and a laptop in February. 

Magisterial District Judge Anthony Ceoffe released him on nonmonetary bond in that burglary case.

When asked if the magistrate had access to Hemingway's criminal history in Florida, District Court Administrator Joseph J. Asturi said in a statement, "When a defendant is arraigned at Pittsburgh Municipal Court, Judges are provided with a copy of the criminal complaint, affidavit, warrant, pre-trial risk assessment, and criminal history."

KDKA-TV asked Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala why his office wasn't at Hemingway's preliminary arraignment in the burglary case. 

"We don't attend those unless we are asked to attend those by police or concerned citizens, victims who are being intimidated," he said.  

DA talks about release

Zappala said if his office had known about Hemingway's full criminal history, including the information coming out of Florida, his office would have challenged the release.

"Had we known about this and known about his rap sheet, we probably would have taken an appeal with Judge Borkowski," Zappala said. 

So who is responsible for making sure the magistrate has that kind of information when deciding whether to release someone? Zappala said his office can still step in when it believes conditions don't adequately protect the public or victims. And he said his office will now revisit its approach.

"When we get a result that is not the best result, and this was not a good result, so we'll have to revisit our schemes," he said. 

When asked if this warranted any discipline, Zappala laughed and said, "I yell at them. That's about the extent of my discipline."

Case raises questions, advocate says 

Michelle Esquenazi, who advocates for the bail industry and recently launched a petition calling for changes to cashless release, says the case raises questions about the information available to decision-makers.

"Here's the thing about having proper information, right? If you sell cars, you need to know what you're selling," Esquenazi said. "Otherwise, you shouldn't be selling cars. If you're in the criminal justice arena, you need to have the information, you need to know what you're doing, so not having staffing and blaming bureaucracy is not necessarily a defense, and it does absolutely nothing for the victims of crime."