Authorities were still piecing together a motive and the circumstances that led up to the stabbing of Virginia state Senator Creigh Deeds yesterday.
"We're leaning towards it being an attempted murder/suicide," Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corrine Geller said.
Deeds' 24-year-old son, Gus, died at the home of a gunshot wound. Geller said Creigh Deeds and his son were the only people at the home, and police were not looking for a suspect.
After the stabbing, Deeds was able to walk away from his rural home to a nearby road and a cousin who was driving by happened to notice the senator, police said.
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Inside the senator's home, authorities found Gus Deeds with a gunshot wound. Despite efforts by state troopers and first responders, he died there.
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.