Dr. Idris Evans, a pediatric medical director at UPMC, was fatally stabbed in his Pittsburgh home early Thursday by an intruder who claimed to be God, according to the Washington Times. His wife was critically injured in the attack, and their two young children escaped unharmed. The suspect, identified by the Daily Mail as Elijah Hemingway, was allegedly found with hand lacerations and now faces charges including criminal homicide and aggravated assault. The Daily Mail further reports that Hemingway had allegedly broken into another home weeks before the fatal stabbing — but was freed from jail.
The attack occurred after midnight Thursday while Evans and his wife were asleep in their bed, according to ABC News. CNN reports that the pediatrician was stabbed in bed and that questions remain about the apprehended suspect's potential motive and whether he knew the doctor. WTAE, in a profile of the victim, described Evans as a doctor remembered for being an advocate for his patients, with a former PICU patient offering tribute.
The killing — and the fact that the suspect had allegedly been released from custody shortly before — ignited a wave of commentary across conservative media accounts. The Gateway Pundit, posting at 1:29 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, shifted attention to a separate attack in Los Angeles: a maintenance worker at a senior facility who pulled a handgun from a shopping cart and opened fire inside the home for the elderly on Monday. According to The Gateway Pundit, Darry Arnette Barnes, sixty, shot and injured three of his coworkers, one of whom was listed in critical condition.
Meanwhile, the account @GuntherEagleman pushed the story into the national political arena, tying it to the Department of Justice's efforts to investigate pediatric gender mutilation. In a post at 12:41 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, the account wrote: "THE WOKE FEVER IS BREAKING, AND DOJ IS MAKING SURE IT NEVER COMES BACK. Todd Blanche said Trump promised to stop the pediatric gender mutilation, won, and then empowered DOJ and Director Patel to investigate and get results. Hospital systems are agreeing to shut it down because."
The post included a video transcript in which Blanche said: "It's such a great, I'm so glad that we're talking about this in this conversation, because I think we often, it feels like a dream, what happened back then, and because of what you guys are doing, this woke fever has broken, and hopefully will never go back. And it's what President Trump has done, because what President Trump did when he was running for re-election, he said, I'm gonna stop this, we're not gonna do this anymore, and then he wins, and he empowers the folks like me, the folks like Director Patel, to go out and do investigations and to get these results, and then when you see these hospital systems agreeing, they recognize they're doing the right thing."
The video transcript also included a moment after Blanche's remarks, in which a voice is heard saying, "He said, Mr. Attorney General, thank you for being here, we gotta leave. Thank you. Thank you so much, I appreciate it. Trump said you were born perfectly, to all the children of America, and that's true, I love it. Thank you, I appreciate it, guys. And speaking of being born perfectly, they're lined up and ready to run in the."
Next News Network could not independently verify the details of the Pittsburgh attack, including the suspect's alleged prior release, or the specific claims made by the account @GuntherEagleman regarding hospital systems and DOJ investigations. The information above is drawn from social media posts, a video transcript, and other news outlets' coverage of the same subject. The events described are what is being claimed and alleged, not what has been independently confirmed by this outlet.
Our Take
The brutal murder of Dr. Idris Evans is a tragedy that should never have happened — and the fact that his alleged killer was reportedly freed from jail weeks earlier after another home invasion is an outrage. This is what happens when soft-on-crime policies put violent repeat offenders back on the street. The suspect claimed to be God, but there was nothing divine about his alleged actions. He is a menace, and the system failed Dr. Evans and his family. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Evans family, and we demand answers from Pittsburgh officials about why this monster was walking free. Meanwhile, the left wants to talk about everything except the real issue: violent criminals are being coddled, and law-abiding Americans are paying with their lives.
