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Senator Deeds blames mental health professionals for son’s death

Posted at 5:10 PM, Nov 25, 2013
and last updated 2013-11-26 06:13:40-05

Virginia Senator Creigh Deeds believes the mental health professionals who evaluated his son Gus are to blame for his son's death.

Deeds gave an interview to a small weekly newspaper out in Highland County in western Virginia.

In it he talks movingly of his son's death and what led up to it.

Deeds told "The Recorder" newspaper that he blames the Community Services Board in Rockbridge County for its treatment of his son. Gus Deeds was released after a few hours last Monday and 13 hours later he killed himself with a rifle after he attacked his father.

Creigh Deeds was treated for stab wounds.

He told the paper, "I cry a lot. I can't focus now and talk to anyone."

He went on to say, "I am alive for a reason, and I will work for change. I owe that to my precious son."

Deeds, who ran unsuccessfully for governor and attorney general, says he will make it his life's work to make sure other families don't have to go through what he is living.

Deeds is expected to return to the state senate in January.

Related:

Deputies called to Creigh Deeds’ home day before fatal fight, Virginia police say

William & Mary staff shocked by alleged attack by Gus Deeds

Sen. Creigh Deeds released from UVA Medical Center

Are there enough beds for immediate psychiatric treatment in Hampton Roads?