Police are investigating the stabbing of Virginia State Sen. Creigh Deeds (D-Bath) as an attempted murder-suicide, Virginia State Police said at a press conference this afternoon.
Deeds was stabbed multiple times in the head and upper torso Tuesday morning, but has since recovered to fair condition at the University Medical Center. His son, Gus, 24, was found alive but died on scene from a gunshot wound, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said at a noon press conference Tuesday.
With his injuries, Deeds stumbled down to Route 42, which is about 75 yards from his home, where he lives with his son and wife. His wife was not home during the incident. Deeds’ cousin, who was driving by, spotted him.
Local Bath County Police received an emergency phone call around 7:25 a.m. Tuesday from the cousin’s home. Deeds was then promptly rushed to the University Medical Center.
Police have recovered the firearm from the incident, and said that just one was shot fired.
“There’s a lot of forensic evidence that has to be collected from the scene … there’s still a lot of work to be done to put together a timeline,” Gellar said.
Police declined to comment on whether Deeds knows about his son’s death.
“I don’t know what kind of conversations that have taken place between him and his family,” Geller said.
Health officials had issued an emergency custody order for Gus the day before the altercation, which would have kept him under psychiatric care for at least four hours and up to 48 hours, Dennis Cropper, executive director of the Rockbridge County Community Services Board, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The son was evaluated Monday at Bath Community Hospital, Cropper said, but was released because no psychiatric bed could be located across a wide area of western Virginia.
Deeds was the 2009 Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee and the 2005 attorney general candidate, but lost both races to current Gov. Bob McDonnell. He has represented the 25th district in the Virginia Senate since 2001.
Deeds had four children with his first wife, Pamela Kay Miller. The couple divorced in 2010, and the senator married Siobhan Gilbride Lomax in June 2012.
University Democrats and College Republicans will co-host a vigil Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Amphitheater.
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