U.S. Park Police have charged a driver with two counts of second degree murder in a car crash that killed two people on a downtown park bench in July.

Jeoffrey Richard Williams, a 57-year-old D.C. resident, was taken into custody without incident on Thursday, police said.

Williams was driving a GMC Yukon SUV on the evening of July 10 when his vehicle barreled into a small federal park at the intersections of 21st and I streets and Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, according to police. Two men experiencing homelessness, Jesus Antonio Llanes-Datil and Thomas Dwight Spriggs, died at the scene.

At a vigil shortly after the crash, an attendee said one of the men was “always playing music.” He said the man usually slept elsewhere downtown, but not much is publicly known about either man’s life.

And until now, little has been known about what happened that night, except that speed might have been a factor.

Indeed, Williams was traveling 63 miles per hour on Pennsylvania Avenue in the five seconds before the crash, with no evidence that he was trying to brake, according to an arrest warrant affidavit that cited the vehicle’s crash data recorder. One second before the crash, the vehicle was going 68 miles per hour, with no indication of breaking, the crash recorder reported. The speed limit on the road is 25 miles per hour.

Two blood samples showed that Williams had a blood alcohol content above the legal limit, the arrest warrant affidavit stated. Williams told investigators that he had purchased tequila and Red Bull, had been drinking at a friend’s house, and had a drink with him in the vehicle in the run-up to the crash, according to the document.

In the immediate aftermath of the crash, Williams told police that he didn’t recollect the crash and that he “must have passed out,” according to the arrest warrant affidavit. The investigator said that surveillance footage captures the vehicle “moving extremely fast on the roadway and then speeding down the wrong side of the roadway, careening off of the roadway into the park area.”

Martin Austermuhle contributed reporting.

Previously:
We Still Know Almost Nothing About A Crash That Killed Two People On A Downtown Park Bench
Park Police Identify Two Victims Killed By SUV Driver In Park
Questions Linger As Community Holds Vigil For Two People Killed By Driver In Downtown Park
Two Pedestrians Were Killed By An SUV Driver Who Barreled Into A Northwest D.C. Park