Creigh Deeds’ son had mental-health evaluation Monday.Released because no psych beds available.

[Are_grits_groceries]

Sen. Creigh Deeds was stabbed multiple times early today at his Bath County home and his son, Gus, is dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Gus Deeds had been released Monday following a mental health evaluation performed under an emergency custody order, an official said.

At a news conference in Charlottesville, a Virginia State Police spokeswoman said Deeds, 55, was stabbed numerous times in the head and torso but was alert and had given statements to authorities. He was listed in fair condition at the University of Virginia Medical Center just before 3 p.m.

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 48 hours, under a temporary detention order.

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.
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http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/creigh-deeds-son-had-mental-health-evaluation-monday/article_431e61ca-5128-11e3-944a-001a4bcf6878.html?mode=jqm

smh.....

[Skidmore]

1. MSNBC just reported that the senator's condition has been upgraded to fair.

Good news. Such a tragic event though.

[ohheckyeah]

2. I find it hard to believe

that they couldn't have found a psychiatric bed somewhere in Virginia. Of course, that hospital is pretty much a joke. I've been in its emergency room.