Gus Deeds: What Went Wrong?

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Following up on today’s tragedy in Virginia — state Sen. Creigh Deeds was severely stabbed by his 24-year-old son, who evidently shot himself to death — I’m trying to find what led to the fatal conflict.

The good news, insofar as anything in this kind of situation can be “good news,” is that Sen. Deeds’ medical condition has been upgraded from “critical” to “fair,” meaning that he is likely to recover.

The Washington Post already has online a detailed and lengthy article:

The younger Deeds, who had withdrawn last month as a student at the College of William and Mary, underwent a mental health evaluation on Monday at a local hospital performed under an emergency custody order, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. But the son was released from Bath County Community Hospital because no psychiatric beds were available across a wide area of western Virginia, the paper reported.
“This was preventable,” said Sen. Richard Saslaw (D-Fairfax), adding that a “breakdown in the mental health system” led to a lack of beds and prevented medical authorities from holding the younger Deeds. . . .
Dennis Cropper, the executive Director of the Rockbridge County Community Services Board, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that Gus Deeds on Monday had undergone a mental health evaluation performed under an emergency custody order. Cropper told the paper that the younger Deeds was released from Bath County Community Hospital because no psychiatric beds were available across a wide area of western Virginia.
In a statement, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg said Gus Deeds had been enrolled as a student there since 2007 and withdrew last month. Geller said it was not immediately clear whether Gus Deeds lived at his father’s home. . . .
Sarah E. King, 27, of Bodega Bay, Calif., has known the Deeds family all of her life. She grew up about 15 minutes from their home and attended William and Mary with Gus Deeds. She is good friends with Rebecca Deeds.
“I can’t even really process it. It’s really ground-shaking, not only for all the Deeds, but the entire community,” King said. “Everyone is just devastated.”
Heather Hannah, who attended elementary and high school with Gus Deeds, saw him two weeks ago at a nearby Pizza Hut. She said the younger Deeds seemed like he was in good spirits.
“I asked him if he was doing all right and he said he was good,” Hannah said.
Hannah described Gus Deeds as intelligent and happy-go-lucky. She said he played in the marching and concert bands at Bath County High School. He played the trombone and harmonica. Hannah remembers Gus Deeds as a talented musician. For talent shows, he performed bluegrass numbers with a group of other students.
It was not immediately clear what prompted the effort to seek the emergency mental health evaluation for Gus Deeds.

Read the whole thing. These are the questions: Why had Gus Deeds dropped out of college? Why would this “happy-go-luck” musician spiral off into viral madness with such apparent suddenness? What led to the “emergency evaluation” for Gus Deeds?

The obvious hunch in this kind of situation is that the kid was on drugs, but nobody is actually saying that yet. At this point, most of the attention is on the shortage of psychiatric beds that led to Gus Deeds being turned loose Monday. But why was this kid in need of psychiatric treatment? No answers for that yet. If you see anything, please link it in the comments or send it to me on Twitter.

UPDATE: Clayton Cramer notes research showing “that 20% of the state to state variation in murder rates could be explained by availability of psychiatric beds.” That’s very interesting as a matter of public policy, of course. Right now, however, I’m just trying to get the facts behind this particular crime.

 

60 comments

  1. Gus Deeds has struggled for some time, per some sources. I did not know the family but there are hints he struggled with some substance abuse issues and perhaps more.

    “”This is a terrible tragedy,” Del. David J. Toscano, D-Charlottesville, said in a statement.

    “Senator
    Deeds was very close to his son Gus, and has taken herculean efforts to
    help him over the years. Our thoughts and prayers are with Creigh and
    the family at this difficult time.” http://www.roanoke.com/news/2389287-12/law-enforcement-sources-creigh-deeds-critically-wounded-son.html

  3. He is at the age that mental health issues, such as schizophrenia, start to show up. He is little older than most, but it is usually your late teens to mid twenties that the symptoms really start to show. I find it odd that it would be a drug problem if they were looking for a psych bed. But I guess it could be meth which makes people pretty crazy.

  4. There are several drugs that can cause the sort of crazy he seems to have exhibited. Even some of the more mundane, like Cocaine, can have bad effects for the wrong people. Meth and PCP are two of the more insidious of those drugs. Who knows, maybe he got a hold of some bath salts. Without an autopsy and toxicology results, we may never know.

  5. The fact that he dropped out of college in October is suggestive of some deeper problem, but there is that description of him as “happy-go-lucky” by a friend who didn’t notice anything wrong with him when she saw him just two weeks ago.

  6. I highly doubt that it was the result of some sort of addiction and psychiatric facilities separate those who are mentally ill and need treatment from addicts, whether it be drugs or alcohol. Our mental health care system is severely broken and I thought that maybe after Sandy Hook, people would want to look into how we can fix it but the only thing that anyone wants to to when it comes to the mentally ill is make sure they can’t get a gun. No one really seems to care about actually making sure these people are receiving the treatment they need and sadly the only time anyone pays attention is when there is a tragedy that, in hindsight, probably could have been prevented but the overwhelming majority of people suffering from a mental illness never are a threat to others.

    “Early reports are suggesting that the elder Deeds requested that his son be placed in emergency psychiatric care, but the younger Deeds was released because there simply are not enough psychiatric beds in Virginia. This is a national problem. It’s separate from, but related to, the problem of mass shootings. We
    do not deal adequately with mental illness. Aren’t 40 years of denial enough?”

    http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/364383/creigh-deedss-preventable-tragedy-mona-charen

  7. Most people probably wouldn’t know the full extent of what was going on with him as far as his mental health is concerned. Usually, it’s only family and maybe really close friends that know because it’s very easy to just smile and act like nothing’s wrong in front of others. Mental illnesses can be very volatile, especially if its untreated, and when things are bad, they won’t be out socializing or hanging out with friends.

  8. While one can and should suspect drugs when a seemingly ‘normal’ young person does something violent and tragic, another potential cause is (as noted in other comments) chronic paranoid schizophrenia. Schizophrenic patients frequently begin to have problems in their teen years but are able to manage until sometime in their 20s. At that point the disease (for reasons that are not clear) worsens, control breaks down, and a violent act occurs.

    This isn’t helped by the various societal issues, including reluctance of some in the political community to come to grips with the problem, resource availability, lack of effectiveness of the drugs used in some patients, lack of support networks and so on.

    I’m plenty conservative and hate how government wastes money on all sorts of stupid stuff, particularly stuff for the well-healed and the cronies. Mental health, particularly for schizophrenia, is an area where I think some carefully guided spending would help.

  9. Psych units are tremendous money losers, and in the age of Obamacare the first things to get cut. Let the blame fall squarely at Barry’s feet.

  11. The truth will come out shortly. As an aside, I’m surprised the trolletariat hasn’t been spewing anti-gun vitriol at the tea-bagging supporters of the attacker. It is so normal I notice its absence.

  14. Being described as happy-go-lucky would fit into bipolar disorder to the untrained person. although, bipolar disorder isn’t usually associated with violent behavior. I am sure that Senator Deeds will likely want to keep the details quiet. But lets hope he will put legislation into place that will allow the families of the mentally ill to get the help that their loved ones really need but are normally in denial about. He is in a very unique position to do so.

  15. The Othered McCain.

    The Other-than-Buckley-having-nothing-to-do-with-McCain Buckley?

    GOOD ENOUGH SIR!

    Quite nice is the American life.

  16. Stacy could have ruined me.

    I wrote the man an honest email.

    Who gets me to write an honest email, years ago, but so honest was I I remember as if it were today?

    It was RSM, that’s who.

  17. Yes that is the age where Schizophrenia first become acute and some time they will attempt to self medicate with street drugs which ultimately make the symptoms worse

  18. Absolutely right. And if drugs were the likely proximate cause of his problems, it is usually easier to get into rehab than a psych inpatient unit.

  19. Schizophrenics can seem completely normal – because they are, at least most of the time. Even the early stages of someone slipping into a state don’t seem severe at first. And for the most part, those under treatment who stay on their meds aren’t a problem for others.

    Violence by schizophrenics, even when in states of total delusion, is very rare, it’s nothing like portrayed in fiction. Mentally ill people can and do become violent, but it is nearly always a different disorder.

    But he’s 24 and had been at college since 2007. It wasn’t mentioned that he was a grad student, so that’s six, going on seven years, not a smooth track for an undergrad.

  20. The government budget for mental health care was cut in the late 50’s or early 60’s, well before the Tea Party was even thought of. It was a bipartisan effort. The Right wanted to cut the budget and the Left didn’t like the idea of someone who “Thinks Differently” being locked up. Now we are paying the price.

  21. ” Clayton Cramer notes research showing “that 20% of the state to state variation in murder rates could be explained by availability of psychiatric beds.”

    Trade-offs, trade-offs. If a country wants to spend 700bil a year on military means that are mostly used to kill and maim someone somewhere, then there’s not much money left for hospital beds.

    But, but… al Qaeda!!!

  22. “If a country wants to spend 700bil a year…” Man, the state militia budgets must be a lot more than I realized!

    This comment would make more sense (at any level of government) if it were talking about stuff like pensions or health care for retirees.

  23. oh, you didn’t know there was a federal military budget? You’ve never heard of federal spending either, I suppose.

    I’m sure there must be a state-level anti-al Qaeda group you can join! They are everywhere these terrorists, I’m tellin ya

  24. Ah, so you’re proposing the Federal government take over mental health. You have impeccable timing.

    But even so, defense spending is no longer the big boy on the block. It’s not peanuts, and there are things that could be cut, but at least it’s a legitimate thing for the Feds to spend money on.

  25. Because al-Qaeda is such a threat!

    I know, I spend my days in absolute fear of the terrorists. So when the good men of the government tell me that we must spend 700 bil on the military instead of caring for people, I am immediately convinced of their logic.
    Nothing strikes as much fear in my little heart than those towel headed al-Qaeda men! They’re like Lawrence of Arabia with an ugly nose. And shorter. And not blond. Obviously, they could only be up to no good.

    Just a moment, I need to go clutch my pearls against their evil menace. They are everywhere, these terrorists! Around every corner, under every bush… I’m tellin ya

  26. Not ‘very rare’ but atypical. Something Fuller Torrey said many years ago: stark staring mad is much more common than stark raving mad. Jabbering to unseen parties, paranoia, and wretched hygiene are common. Violence, not so much. (Clayton Cramer’s brother Ron and Jared Loughner are the exceptions).

  27. Just to recall something that Clayton Cramer has noted, in partial response to Fuller Torrey.

    1. Tertiary syphilis has disappeared, the post-encephalitc patients Oliver Sacks made his bones caring for and studying have all died, and the advent of lithium and anti-psychotic drugs has made for a considerable population of schizophrenics and manic-depressives who are better off outside the walls if they have relatives to keep an eye on them.

    2. The state asylum was an omnibus institution, taking in not only the insane but the senile and the retarded. Its inhabitants are now distributed across an array of more specialized facilities (group homes and nursing homes, principally).

    3. Medicaid financing has allowed private facilities to replace public facilities.

    The potential clientele of the state asylum is much smaller than it was sixty years ago. In truth, you do not actually need physical facilities operated by state employees bar those auxilliary to the state prison and jail system, and there should have been such a place at the ready in this case. State finance of regulated private facilities will do.

  29. Such things are not in the FedGov portfolio. The states have much more flexibility on such thing, but I’ll guarantee that most states are constitutionally limited on such things as well. State Constitutions, however, are much more easily amended and things were set up to work that way for a purpose.
    FedGov was to do those things the states needed to do as a whole, and not just on the state level. Foreign Relations, War, and interstate commerce are about the limit of the delegated powers. Mental health is no where to be found in the US Constitution.

  31. Mental health is no where to be found in the US Constitution.
    ………..
    Which explains why so little sanity is seen around the country and in politics in general?

  32. There is so little sanity in politics because the left is off on an unmedicated jag chasing a utopia that will in actuality be a dystopia when they get it. The US Constitution does not allow spend on mental health. I think you will find even most state constitutions don’t allow it either.

  36. Wrong question. Which part authorizes it? And why do you think it’s a good idea to expand Federal power? What world do you live in?

  37. Obviously treating these people requires resources and professionals, and when we spend 700 bil on military destructive means, which is not a lot of money to go around, there’s none left over for anything else.

    Remember, there’s al-Qaeda and nothing compares to that!

  38. I’m in favor in spending resources to treat people, and curbing spending to destroy people.

    As I said before, I live in a world terrorized by the menace of al-Qaeda, so nothing else matters. And you?

    Have you looked under your bed? There might be an al-Qaeda terrorist hiding there now!
    If it weren’t for those 700bil spent on the military, the govt would have caught 3 instead of 5 terrorists. That leaves 2 terrorists running around the world! I’m perfectly terrorized with the thought.

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