Virginia State Sen. Creigh Deeds is in critical condition after being stabbed inside his Bath County home, authorities say.
Virginia State Police officials say that the former gubernatorial candidate was flown to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville for treatment of serious injuries.
Deeds’ son is dead from a gunshot wound, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. Virginia State Police only confirmed that a second person at the home had died.
Details are sketchy. The incident happened shortly after 7 am.
Update under the fold
Deeds had 4 children from a former marriage which ended in 2010. The one son, Gus, was found dead from a gunshot wound. Deeds remarried in 2012. No mention of his current wife in this incident.
Our thoughts and prayers are for Creigh Deeds and his family. We wish his a speedy recovery.
Further reading at the Richmond Times Dispatch.
Update from the Richmond Times Dispatch:
Dennis Cropper, executive director of the Rockbridge County Community Services Board, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the emergency custody order, or ECO, allowed Gus Deeds to be held as long as four hours to determine whether he should be held longer, up to 72 hours, under a temporary detention order.
The son was evaluated Monday at Bath County hospital, Cropper said, but was released because no psychiatric bed could be located across a wide area of western Virginia.
At the news conference, state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said Gus Deeds was found inside the family’s residence in rural Millboro with a gunshot wound, and died at the scene. Geller said authorities are not looking for other suspects.
Authorities said they were still working to determine the sequence of events that they said took place around 7:25 a.m.
So folks, that’s what can happen when there are no beds available for those who need psychiatric help. Sometimes they stab their father and then kill themselves and sometimes they get guns and go kill large numbers of people. There must be improved facilities for those in need of psychiatric intervention and treatment.
Just heard the son was ordered to a mental facility. Sadly, the Commonwealth did NOT have a bed available and he was sent home. That is the real crux of the matter. Our mental health system is beyond flawed.
NO kidding. This situation MUST be improved, otherwise this tragedy and all others will be on the voters of Virginia. Talk about “for want of a nail a shoe was lost!”
Lots of similarities with our friends in WVa. that we attended a funeral for last week.
Oh Lafayette, I had forgotten about the tragedy with your friends recently. How absolutely horrible. How is that family doing?
Last month. Sorry.
“So folks, that’s what can happen when there are no beds available for those who need psychiatric help. Sometimes they stab their father and then kill themselves and sometimes they get guns and go kill large numbers of people. There must be improved facilities for those in need of psychiatric intervention and treatment.”
I couldn’t agree with these statements more. The issue isn’t the weapon used to inflict the violence, it is the mental state of the person inflicting the violence. The stigma that surrounds mental illness still impedes our society’s views and efforts to treat it. Look at the resources our society has put forth for other illness; cancer in all its forms, HIV-AIDS, diabetes…and yet we still look at the mentally ill as if they were lepers. The problem is, mental illness impacts the entire family and community. Why is it that someone who is a danger to themselves, their family, or their community, denied the treatment they need for lack of resources? Our population has grown since the 1970’s, and yet the available facilities have remained about the same. State facilities gave way to “community treatment” and private homes, but still, the bedspace is about the same. This is a real emergency, and yet our society lacks the will to address it. Instead, we look to “solutions” that don’t protect anyone, least of all those who are indeed mentally ill, their immediate families, and yet we ask the same questions over and over when a mass shooting happens, or when a woman drives her kids into a pond, or some other sensational tragedy occurs. Here’s why; our mental health system is broken, and it is the stigma surrounding those afflicted by mental illness that prevents us from really addressing the issue. Nothing will change, unless this changes.
We really haven’t moved very far as a society at all. In fact, I would say we are stuck, stuck behind some notion that every facility is a “Snakepit.” Ever since Americans were made aware of unacceptable practices at some mental health facilities and institutions decades ago, we as a nation have become paralyzed by some sort of absurd collective guilt.
That guilt has created a situation where countless street people live on grates and out of refrigerator boxes in cities across america. The guilt has kept us from dealing with family members who are in desperate need of treatment and has closed down facilities where those who are mentally ill could receive services.
We have thrown out the baby with the bath water. There must be facilities where those who are a danger to themselves or to others can go for the treatment they need. We need to create environments that aren’t “Snakepits.” We need facilities for long and short term treatment and yes, the facilities need to be public and supported by our state and federal government because money shouldn’t be the reason why people don’t get the treatment they need. It’s really simply a matter of safety.
We also need to figure out how to keep weapons out of the hands of those mentally ill. But let’s face it, a pair of scissors of a butter knife can be a weapon when someone has the intent to do someone else harm. I believe guns become the issue because a gun can inflict multiple injuries to many people. A butter knife takes a little longer.
Shep is reporting now, that apparently there were 2 beds available in the Commonwealth.
I believe a mental evaluation is still being done. I have a feeling that the shooter will not be able to stand trial, based on mental issues. They’ve spent the past two decades in and out of facilities. In fact, before the murder, the son had been released from a state hospital twice in the week leading up to the horrible incident. My heart is still broken. Conway was a pillar of the community.
How many more mental health $’s will be cut in states that expand Medicaid? Once the Feds stop contributing $’s for the Medicaid expansion that money needs to come from somewhere. Just sayin…
There are plenty of people who need mental health treatment who aren’t on Medicaid. This is an ongoing problem having not a lot to do with the ACA. Hopefully the ACA will fix some of it but…if there aren’t the beds there is little that the ACA can do about it. I am sure the Deeds family had enough money to put the son in the hospital. I am willing to bet that Creigh Deeds has health care. There aren’t enough facilities that handle treatment for mental health issues.