There’s a breaking story out of Virginia that is shaping up to be the worst kind of defensive gun use. Virginia state senator Creigh Deeds was found severely stabbed last night in his head and torso at his Virginia home last night, and the body of his son was found shot to death nearby. According to the police, they are not seeking any other suspects. In other words, either the father shot the son to save his own life, or the son committed suicide after attempting to kill his dad. From CNN:
His son withdrew from The College of William & Mary last month after being enrolled off-and-on since 2007, according to a statement from the school. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Tuesday that Gus Deeds had been given a mental health evaluation under an emergency custody order Monday — but was released because no psychiatric bed could be located across a wide area of western Virginia, Dennis Cropper, executive director of the Rockbridge County Community Services Board, told the newspaper.
We still don’t know all the facts in this case, but we’ll keep you informed.
Wow. I heard about that this morning, but not the part about “not pursuing any suspects”. Whether this was a dgu or attempted murder-suicide, that is going to be some hard events to live through for the family.
Apparently the son stabbed the dad then offed himself.
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Senator-Creigh-Deeds-Assaulted-in-Bath-County-Home–232498761.html
Awful.
I’m trying really hard not to point out how if Sandy Hook had led to a crusade for mental health care instead of gun control, this kid would probably be alive. I consider this one poetic justice for the father, and tragic unintended consequences for the son. I really hope that the father realizes that his party platform kept his son from getting the treatment he needed.
I hope that RF posts the video I sent him talking about mental health.
Yes, something should have been done about mental health. A lot of lip service was put into play and then nothing. The Malloy commission in CT did not even bother to pretend to release something on mental health although they spent a lot of tax dollars making believe they where doing something.
Same at the federal level — what happened to the bipartisan bill — nothing.
Having a family member with mental health problems, it is hell when you cannot find a bed to help them out and you are basically their care giver 24/7 until they can get the treatment they need. Thanks to the ACLU and democrats, many of the needed beds have been eliminated.
That aside, how do you determine that someone is going to do something like this? Yes, this person had a mental health issue, but unless they have a violent past or they are heavy into drugs or alcohol abuse, there is little to say the person will be violent. If had a past history of doing harm to himself or others, then the system failed. Maybe his father will finally use his position to do something good by bringing the problem to light that our mental health system is broken and needs repair.
In the end, it is less than 1% of all violent crimes are caused by someone with a mental health issue however 50% of all police related shootings where someone is killed the person killed had a non-violent mental health history.
Not going to disagree… However, in this particular case. The boy was committed. They just could not find an in-patient bed for him. The argument against prognostic mental health is moot as in this case the boy was found to be an imminent danger to himself and others.
I think you had better look up the definition of moot because you obviously do not know what it means. Hint, it does NOT mean superfluous as you suggest.
Jim, I’m pretty sure I used it right.
adjective
1.
subject to debate, dispute, or uncertainty, and typically not admitting of a final decision.
What good does it do to “commit” someone if there is no place to commit them to? Reforming mental health means more than IDing those in need. Mental health beds and services have been cut repeatedly due to a decrease in federal money and the misguided goal of “deinstitutionalization.”
Boy, you’re about as sick as the disarmers who wave the bloody shirt every time someone gets killed without knowing the facts.
Not really. I’m not demanding the rights of anyone else. I simply point out that the Democrats pushed for civilian disarmament instead of addressing the real issue. I find it tragically ironic that this Democrat is no forced to live with the consequences of that decision.
I tend to agree. He helped make that bed, now he has to lay in it. Also willing to bet he never expected to lie in that particular bed either.
On the other hand, the Republicans have not helped this situation, though the general party line is to not try to infringe on the 2nd amendment.
That being said, if any politician voted with their constituents best interests at heart rather then following the party line, we would not be in the giant turd pile that kicking the can down the road for the past 40 years has got us into.
Report is son stabbed the senator then offed himself.
Yeah, that doesn’t sound like a DGU at all.
What a tragedy, however it occurred. Once again, the mental health system, decimated by the ACLU and liberal laws, has let the people down. When will they learn? This quote says it all:
“but was released because no psychiatric bed could be located across a wide area of western Virginia”
Given how hard it is to legally commit someone against their will, along with the fact that a physician made the decision to do so, there is no excuse for releasing the kid because a “bed could not be located”.
A liberal tried to tell me the reason mental health is such a problem in this country is evil republicans won’t pay for the care. He couldn’t be more wrong. We spend plenty on drugs, treatment, and the like but the ACLU successfully sued in all states to have mentally ill people released on the street.
While the incarceration and hospitalization was not a shinning moment for the system at least they were prevented from harming themselves or others.
Now we get gun control instead of common sense mental health policies.
To add to irony, CT at one time was considered to have the best mental health system of any state and the primary treatment facility was in Newtown. The facility was completely dismantled and given to the town to build schools and sports fields.
The state now ranks near the bottom
You can see the general state of mental health affairs on a state by state basis at this link
http://mentalillnesspolicy.org/
Seriously, read this for some time and tell me we do not have screwed up system that politicians are pretty much ignoring. NYS has most of its mentally ill in prisons and many without treatment who will eventually get released to the street.
Same thing happened to my son a few years ago after a psychotic episode. “Take him home and maybe a bed will open in the morning. Bye bye!”
Probably because all of the funding for beds got used up imprisoning perfectly peaceful, peaceable nonviolent recreational drug users who have never harmed anyone and never would..
More like used to pay for “The War on Terror [tm].”
The story coming out now is Gus, the son, stabbed Sen. Deeds repeatedly, then shot himself as his dad somehow made it out to be picked up by a relative. No matter how it turns out, this is a truly horrendous turn of events: http://roanoke.com/news/2389287-12/official-creigh-deeds-son-released-after-psychiatric-eval.html
Between this and the Liberty University shooting this morning, today is shaping up to be a dark one for the Valley: http://roanoke.com/news/2389085-12/police-id-liberty-university-student-killed-by-campus.html
This was a shooting by a LEO of a suspect during an altercation.
Justified? We shall see.
Justified or not it won’t be on thr grabbers’ radar because the shooter was an “authorized person”
This is a developing,not breaking story. It’s been in the news all morning
The son was evaluated on an emergency order but kicked because no psycho ward had a bed for him? And now, he’s dead and his father grievously injured. If that kind of danger doesn’t merit a bed, what the hell does?
The mental healthcare industry in America is a bad joke.
The really hard part is that the law doesn’t allow people to be committed involuntarily without due process. I agree with that law because otherwise it invites too much abuse. But the result is that a lot of people who need help are the type that don’t recognize that need in themselves.
Yeah I don’t think we want to go back to the days where you could institutionalize someone to get them out of the way.
It’s a tragic story that doesn’t need to be used as a flag by anyone, I hope…
“Yeah I don’t think we want to go back to the days where you could institutionalize someone to get them out of the way.”
And that’s the part that everyone forgets when they rant and rave about closing the psychiatric hospitals in the 70’s and 80’s. People have short-term memories in this country.
That is not exactly true. Depending on the state, they can be forcibly committed from between 15 to 17 days for evaluation. Then, and only then, with attorney present and usually through probate court can they be committed for longer.
Some state are better, some have little and some have none.
Here’s a proposal:
A 72 hour involuntary commitment for evaluation would be a good start. If the provider determines that the patient needs to stay longer, then perhaps 14 day then 30 increments would be good. After 30, then a hearing must be held to determine if the patient stays longer. Any involuntary commitment less than 30 days, which isn’t mandated by a judge, does NOT preclude owning a firearm or obtaining/maintaining a CCP.
Severely depressed patients could be stabilized and started on ongoing treatment to prevent another severe episode. The same for most other disorders. Once the patient is stabilized, correctly medicated (as needed), and receiving therapy, and agrees to continue treatment, they are usually able to function fairly normally, and are not a danger to themselves or society.
If you want to see where all of the mental health patients turned out in the 70s went, just look at the folks sleeping under bridges and in doorways, or begging at intersections. Take a close look in their eyes. It’s sad, and sometimes downright scary. I’d much rather my tax dollars go to taking care of those truly ill folks, rather than paying for lazy slugs to sit on their butts and buy whatever they want with their food stamps/debit card.
Every state has a summary process for a short term hold on people who may be dangerous to themselves and others.
Thirty days is a long time for someone to be force fed anti-psychotic meds, SSRIs, etc. A lot of damage can be done to healthy mind by the time of that first hearing. There’s a lot of abuse possible in a month. Scale the time back before the hearing and/or preclude involuntary medications and procedures and I’d agree with you more.
The short term hold only works if there is a bed to hold the person. As in this case. I suspect they would have had to ship him to another state to find an open bed. I’ve seen firsthand multihour phoneathons to find a bed in a hospital for a short term stay, and most psych wards are at capacity all the time. It’s like playing the lottery, only nobody wins.
Meme prediction; “only Obamacare can save our mental health system, so opposing Obamacare = supporting mentally ill killers.”
Maybe his dad was just a dick?
I’m not a political supporter of his, but I have family members that know him personally and think very highly of him.
Being a dick doesn’t mean anyone deserves to be stabbed (or beaten, or shot) to death, unless they are attacking another person.
Foxnews/AP helpfully included this bit of guilt by association:
“Deeds, a rural Democrat who drafted a constitutional amendment guaranteeing Virginians’ right to hunt, long enjoyed support from the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights advocates.”
“…no psychiatric bed could be located across a wide area of western Virginia…”. ….so…..Ban Assault Clips!!!!!
Wow. Can we infer that he (son) attacked his father with a knife despite being in possession of a firearm? Or did dad have the gun, son had a knife, then after the attack son took possession of dad’s gun and commited suicide with it?
Tragic needless to say, but if a family member bent on homicide has both a firearm AND a knife, but choses the KNIFE to murder, it heightens the brutality of the attack.
The Obammunists who Hate the Tea Party had a surprisingly objective report on that piece but I predict it will be only a matter of days before the grabbers are all over this like a cheap suit.
“See? We have to go into people’s homes for the children!”
We all know this was the gun’s fault, and not some mythical failure of the (perfectly fine) mental health care system in the US. So just shut up and turn in your guns, drone. /s/
Sucks that the guy is dead, but can you ask for better proof that IT IS NOT THE GUNS you freaking morons! Crazy people do crazy shit, as evidenced herein.
Here’s the deal, the people that took Gus in took the easy out they were lazy and didn’t want the hassle of all the paperwork involved and the long drive to take him to a facility where he could get care. It’s a small town sheriff and small town hospital that lacks appropriate staff they chose the easy way and now a man is dead an another is critically injured. For the record Deeds is not a gun control supporter his home is in a county where gun ownership is damn near 100% and the schools shut down for deer season. The damage control is already going hard and fast as the Sheriff and the hospital work to cover their mistakes and to make things easier for the folks in the county with money or power like they always do nothing will change because they won’t allow it to this will be swept under the rug and it will be the same story the next time a deputy takes someone in for a mental health eval.. hell you can’t get votes and stay in office if do your job by the book.
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