Around 50 people gathered at a vigil on July 18 for two people who were killed on a park bench in James Monroe Park.

Gaspard Le Dem / DCist

The U.S. Park Police has released the names of two people killed last month after an SUV driver barreled into a Northwest D.C. park and struck them while they were on a bench.

Thomas Dwight Spriggs, 42, and Jesus Antonio Llanes-Datil, 63, died on the scene at James Monroe Park near Foggy Bottom on July 10. USPP held off identifying the two victims for nearly a month as they tried to locate and notify next of kin, which proved difficult as neither of the two men had a fixed address, according to Park Police spokesperson Sgt. Eduardo Delgado. Police eventually managed to reach the men’s families, Delgado says.

The driver of the SUV was taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries, and police are still investigating the cause of the crash. The results of a toxicology report on the driver are pending, per USPP. Police have also said speed may have been a factor in the crash.

About a week after the men died, advocates and community members held a vigil in their honor at the park where they were killed. Robert Gregory, a man experiencing homelessness in the District who often sleeps on the benches in that same park, told DCist that he knew one of the men who was killed. ““He was always walking around with that speaker—he was always playing music. I was surprised he was here because he usually sleeps at the subway down there on Connecticut Avenue,” he said. “I’m angry with myself because God spared me and took them.”

Activists pushed for change at the vigil, arguing that the stretch of road near the park is dangerous. “It’s actually a really inhospitable place,” Greg Billing, executive director for the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, told DCist. “Just walking across the street is like, eight lanes of traffic—it’s really terrifying. It really doesn’t work for anybody.

There have been 15 traffic fatalities in the District so far this year, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.