Virginia state Senator Creigh Deeds was reported in stable condition at a hospital on Wednesday after being stabbed by his 24-year-old son Austin who committed suicide afterwards, according to the Associated Press.
Deeds was hospitalized at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville on Tuesday after being found by his cousin walking down a road near his house, where the incident occurred, bleeding heavily from his chest and head, according to CNN.
Deeds' son, Gus, had been given a mental health evaluation under an emergency custody order Monday before stabbing his father and killing himself, according to CNN. Deeds was a 2009 Democratic nominee who took his son Austin, who also goes by Gus, on the campaign trail with him. Deeds lost in the general election that year.
According to CNN, Deed's home in Millboro was searched by state troopers who found a gun and Gus dead of a gunshot wound to the head, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said. Police are still investigating what led to the stabbing.
According to several different sources, Deeds had a close relationship with his son Gus, and the two were the only ones at the rural Virginia home when the altercation occurred, according to CNN.
Gus, who is one of four children, had been studying music on and off at the College of William and Mary since 2007, but withdrew completely last month, the AP reported. School spokesman Brian Whitson said he had a strong academic record, but did not say why he left.
Corrine Geller, a state police spokeswoman said communication was made with the senator, but she would not release any information on what he said, according to the AP.
When Deed's ran for governor in 2009, Gus took a semester off from school to join his dad, and told a reporter back then that "he needs me and I need him," the AP reported.
"I've got to go through this campaign process but that doesn't mean I've got to be completely separated from my family the whole time," Deed's said in 2009, according to the AP.
David Toscano, a Democratic delegate from Charlottesville, a district which overlapped with Deeds, said the two were close and that Deeds had taken "herculean efforts to help him over the years," according to the AP.
