SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Authorities Thursday publicly identified the second and third of three homeless men killed this week when a car driven by a DUI suspect jumped a curb on an East Village thoroughfare and plowed into a sidewalk squatters' encampment.
Randy Ferris, 65, and Walter Jones, 61, were among nine transients struck by the out-of-control Volvo station wagon in the 1500 block of B Street shortly after 9 a.m. Monday, county spokesman Donnie Ryan confirmed this afternoon.
Ferris and Jones died at the scene of the wreck near San Diego City College, along with 40-year-old Rodney Diffendal, whose name was released Wednesday following next-of-kin notification.
Paramedics took five other victims to hospitals for treatment of injuries varying from severe to moderately serious, and treated another homeless person at the scene for minor trauma. Their identities have not been released.
Craig Martin Voss, 71, was arrested at the scene of the crash on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. The San Diego resident was believed to have been under the influence of a drug of some kind when he lost control of his car, according to San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit, who declined to specify what type of substance was suspected of causing Voss' alleged impairment.
Voss was booked into county jail on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, causing great bodily injury during the commission of a felony and DUI. He was being held on $1 million bail pending arraignment, scheduled for Tuesday.
Though investigators have been unable to locate any relatives of Ferris -- a Rhode Island native and one-time Marine who served during the Vietnam War -- or Jones, county officials decided to release their names in hopes that somebody somewhere might know one or both of them and be able to help track down family members.
"We have no leads," Ryan said. "This is often the case in deaths of the homeless."
Anyone who might be able to assist in the effort is asked to call the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office at 858-694-2905.
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