CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — State Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, the Democrats’ gubernatorial nominee four years ago, was stabbed Tuesday in his head and chest at his home, and his son died at the residence from a gunshot wound, police said.
State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller wouldn’t say who stabbed Deeds or how his son was shot, but she did say authorities were not looking for any suspects. The senator, who also ran for attorney general in 2005, was hospitalized in critical condition. His condition was later upgraded to fair.
After the stabbing, Deeds was able to walk away from his home to a nearby road in rural western Virginia and a cousin who was driving by happened to spot the senator, police said. They drove to the cousin’s home and an emergency call was placed from there.
Inside the senator’s home in Millboro, authorities found Deeds’ 24-year-old son, Gus, suffering from a gunshot wound. Despite efforts by state troopers and first responders, he died there.
Geller said they were still trying to figure out motive and the sequence of events.
“It’s a very complex investigation,” Geller said. She said police have been able to talk with the senator, but she wouldn’t reveal what he said.
Deeds and his ex-wife, Pam, divorced shortly after the 2009 campaign. Deeds remarried last year but authorities would not say whether anyone else besides the senator and his son were in the home at the time of the attack.
Deeds, a former Bath County prosecutor, was elected to the House of Delegates in 1991 and to the state Senate in 2001.
Gus Deeds is one of the senator’s four adult children. He was studying music at the College of William and Mary, where he had been enrolled off and on since 2007, but withdrew last month, school spokesman Brian Whitson said. The college said he had a strong academic record. It did not say why he left.
During Deeds’ bid for governor, his son took off a semester to join his dad on the campaign trail.