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"ac360 later" starts right now. >> good evening we interview criegh deeds of virginia. and with three years left in his second term will it be president obama's last chance to shape his agenda. and what is it like aboard the nightmare cruise ship where only the germs appear to be going first class? this afternoon i was in richmond, virginia speaking with a father whose face and body bear the marks of a nearly fatal attack that occurred two months ago. criegh deeds was slashed and stabbed and almost killed by his mentally ill son gus who then took his own life. he talked about it on "60 minutes" but tonight we go indepth. >> people have been so kind to me. they reach out and they don't understand sometimes that i've got to be left alone. because i have to focus on the good things. you know, but these pictures and the facebook page that was set up for gus. there are so many good pictures and so many good memories. that's what i have to focus on. i'm determined that gus not be remembered just for his illness or what ended his life. i mean, that's nothing. he was such a good boy. a good man. he had a good heart. he loved people. >> gus was senator deeds' only son and was loved deeply by a father who tried to do everything he could to get his son the help he needed. but the system, he says, failed his son. he is speak out because he wants you to know about the boy he loved and a young man with a bright future, a future taken away by mental illness. early in the morning on november 19th police received a 911 call about a violent attack on state senator criegh deeds. he was stabbed around his head and torso with multiple slashes across his face. the attack happened on deeds' property just outside his home. the assault was shocking enough but the identity of the attacker was beyond comprehension. it was deeds' son, gus, who turned a gun on himself after the attack. >> senator deeds' son, gus deeds, age 24, was found inside the residence suffering from life threatening injuries associated with a gunshot wound. despite efforts a it the residence he died at the scene. >> senator deeds was found by a cousin on the highway in front of his home, critically injured, deep in shock, unaware his son was dead. >> with that we work and keep fighting. >> deeds is a democratic politician in virginia. he launched a campaign for governor with his son on the campaign trail with him. gus is the only boy in the family. they lived a seemingly normal, happy life. but at some point in his early 20s, gus began to change. his parents feared he was bi-polar or schizophrenic. a month before the attack, gus dropped out of college. on november 18th of last year, criegh deeds took his son to the hospital for a mental health evaluation. they found gus to be homicidal, suicidal or unable to care for himself. but the hospital had no psychiatric beds available and released him. six hours is the maximum time a person can be held in emergency custody without a bed. the next morning gus attacked his father. since the attack three area hospital confirmed they had beds available but no one called them to check. >> criegh deeds still lives at the same house where the attack happened just over two months ago. he is mostly recovered from his injuries show he is visibly scarred and returned to his seat at the state senate with a new purpose, mental health reform in virginia to fix the system that failed him and failed his son. >> that's the motivation for the state senator. and the need for reform extends far beyond virginia. there is so much stigma about mental illness in this country. tonight we want you to hear criegh deeds. we want you to hear about the son that he loved, the son he lost and the pain that too many families face often all alone. >> what do you want people to know about gus? >> gus, gus was a sensitive kid. he was sometimes overly sensitive and very -- he was the kind of kid that sometimes kept count of rights and wrongs and who got what. and he was very conscious of that growing up. but he blossomed as a teenager. and then he was 20 and the campaign didn't work out, gus was kind of just astray. he said i'll sit out a semester of school. his mother called me one morning and said i have nothing but a note on the table from gus saying i'm taking a ride and she got a text of a road sign in wyoming. he came back and -- a little bit change -- significantly change bud he came back with a renewed commitment to faith. i mean, it wouldn't be too much to say that he was probably over the top with it. in many respects. >> was that the first indication to you that there was something wrong? >> i didn't really know that anything was wrong. it's easy to react to something like that and say something is wrong with him. but my children had been raised in church and faith. he came back with a renewed religious interest. i thought it was a little bit strange considering past conversations with gus that he was that almost fanatical. you know, he was distant. he started making knives out of scrap metal. i think his mother had him -- in october of 2010, or late september had him in a halfway house in charlottesville. and he was there for a week or two and he came back and we got him washing dishes. this kid with unlimited will intellectual capacity was doing menial work. >> he was adrift. >> he came to live with me twice in the summer of 2011. he said things that made me -- he said -- he -- admitted that he was considering killing himself. and so i didn't take that lightly. >> for a parent that's a -- >> that's devastating. you can just imagine. gus, who is just -- he had unlimited ability. and it was just every day for the last few years has been just very tough. >> it's also -- i mean, it's terrifying for a parent to see things in your child at that age, especially a child so accomplished. >> and the thing is once they're 18 you lose a lot of control out there. >> you didn't know anything he had been diagnosed with because of privacy laws. >> i never had access to any of that. after he came to live with me, when he admitted suicidal thoughts twice. i went to magistrate twice and had him committed. i was the bad guy but i kept him alive. >> did you suspect he was perhaps schizophrenic? >> in the reading i have done i'm convince head was schizophrenic. i'm not a professional in the health care field but i don't know. what i have read i think he -- >> it's the age that people start to exhibit signs of it. >> he went back to school and was dean's list again. fall of 2012 and spring of 2013. when he came home i was worried he was not taking his medicine. >> his thoughts were racing? >> he was just a little more distant and a little less open. and then in early october, he started posting things on facebook about the teachers or the professors combining forces or consolidating -- you know -- >> plotting against him. >> yeah, yeah. and i just sent him a message on facebook. i said, gus, what's going on? is there anything i can do to help? he said this will pass, don't worry. the next day he called me and wanted to come home. >> it's interesting my brother did the same thing. one day he called my mom and was like i want to come home. and when i heard that i was terrified. >> i got on the phone with a friend of mine who is a psychologist and i said gus, you and i need to work on our communication skills. we need to work on our relationship. and we need to sit down with this lady. >> you were hoping by involving yourself in it that that would get him to be able to talk to a psychologist? >> absolutely. and we went and talked and spent an hour with her. and you know, later on, that was like a saturday morning. later on she called me and said, you know, gus is delusional, i'm really worried. and on the 1st of november i went to ireland. he never responded to an e-mail or picked up the phone when i called him. his delusions had taken over. and his attitude changed. >> would he express the delusions? >> well, he was just -- just of grandeur, almost that he was a demigod, and i was a slave. >> people have delusions in different ways and his had religious -- >> it did. i looked in his book and saw things that concerned me. and that he was looking around -- to be concerned about guns. >> and a journal he had been keeping? >> yeah, a journal. and the next morning, the monday, the 18th when i got to work, i called after they were open, i called the csb. i talked to a fella there and i explained the problem and he said you need to get to the magistrate and get an eco -- >> that is? >> emergency custody order. >> my concern about that is that he is only held for 48 or 72 hours and he comes home and i have the same problem again. and this guy said don't worry. we'll try to work with you to get a long-term placement at western state. that cuts to the core when you hear your son might need to be hospitalized long term. at least he would be alive. when there is life, there's hope. i went to the magistrate and got the thing issued, the eco. i went to the house and i sat with gus. he was sitting in the living room playing the banjo. i sat with gus playing the banjo. the deputy sheriffs came 20 minutes later. they picked gus up -- >> was he angry about that? >> he was surprised. he was frustrated. and i -- i could -- as the day wore on i knew that he was upset. the csb worker was to -- you know, he didn't think gus was suicidal. he's trained in those things. i'm not. his plan -- he said they had space for gus at this crossroads halfway house, crisis intervention in charlottesville but they were concerned about his behavior. he needed to be more stable and thought he would be more stable in the morning. the plan was to take him the next morning to the halfway house. >> he was very agitated? >> he didn't sit down all afternoon. he would pace the floor. he would stop and hold his chin in his hand. and look at me and smile. just this closed lip smile and pace some more. and pace a little while and look at me again. and as the time slipped away, i -- i knew there would be a confrontation. i had no idea it would be violent. i had no reason -- i mean, gus and i -- had no reason to think there would be violence. >> csb where they took his son was a community services board. when we come back senator deeds talks about the attack. >> when he turned around i could see he had something in his hand coming at me. i couldn't tell -- i thought it was a screw driver. i had no idea what it was. he just kept coming at me with stuff. i said what's going on? and you know, i said, gus, i love you so much, don't make this any worse than it is. he just kept stabbing. car insurance. yeah. everybody knows that. did you know there is an oldest trick in the book? what? trick number one. look-est over there. ha ha. made-est thou look. so end-eth the trick. hey.... yes.... geico. fifteen minutes could save you... well, you know.