CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Three hospitals had beds available for the son of Virginia state Sen. Creigh Deeds before the young man attacked his father and killed himself, officials said.
Austin Deeds, 24, was given a psychiatric examination Monday and attempts to hospitalize him were not successful. He apparently stabbed his father and then shot and killed himself early Tuesday.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday a magistrate issued an emergency custody order for Austin Deeds after he was evaluated by officials at the Rockbridge County Community Services Board. Mary Ann Bergeron, executive director of the Virginia Association of Community Services Boards, told the newspaper the facility called area hospitals to admit the younger Deeds, but couldn't find one.
"I can tell you right now, it was multiple hospitals that they called," Bergeron said. "That is a very rural area. The hospitals are few and far between."
However, the newspaper reported later Wednesday officials at three hospitals near the Deeds' Bath County home said they had beds available for Austin Deeds.
John Beghtol, director of community services at Western State Hospital, a state-run facility, told the Post, "We had beds and we were not called."
Rockingham Memorial Hospital spokeswoman Debra Thompson said the hospital had space in its mental health unit Monday evening and would have been able to take the younger Deeds in if he met screening requirements.
Mary Kay Campbell, a spokeswoman for the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, told the Post the hospital had a bed available for Austin Deeds Monday.
Creigh Deeds was recovering Wednesday at the Charlottesville hospital, where his condition was upgraded to good.
Austin Deeds apparently took his own life following an altercation during which he stabbed his father in the face and chest at the family home, police said.
Creigh Deeds, after an unsuccessful gubernatorial run in which he lost to Republican Robert McDonnell in 2009, has been largely out of the limelight since, but has remained in the Virginia Legislature.
Austin Deeds was a former campaign volunteer for his father. He had been in a downward spiral and dropped out of college last month, the Post said.
State investigators said Tuesday they were trying to establish a motive and the sequence of events that led to the incident.
