3 killed in crash at encampment remembered
‘He was ... the light of my day,’ a mourner says of one homeless victim in San Diego.
An interfaith memorial service for the victims at a homeless camp in downtown San Diego attracts dozens.
SAN DIEGO — Dozens of community members gathered Sunday at an interfaith memorial service for the three men killed when a driver plowed through a homeless encampment in downtown San Diego on a rainy morning last month.
The men killed in the March 15 crash were Rodney Diffendal, 40; Walter Jones, 61; and Randy Ferris, 65.
The crash happened about 9 a.m. when the driver of a Volvo station wagon jumped a curb and careened through a homeless encampment on a B Street sidewalk in a tunnel under San Diego City College’s Curran Plaza. Seven others were hurt.
The tunnel had sheltered the victims from the cold and rain.
The motorist was arrested and faces charges of gross vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence.
Sunday’s service was held at the Civic Center Plaza, several blocks from the crash site.
Among the mourners was Yusef Miller of the Islamic Society of North County, who said the crash represented a societal failure because the men shouldn’t have been living on the streets in the first place. He said it was not a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time — because any place where someone is homeless and any time when someone is homeless is the wrong place and the wrong time.
“It is not the fault of the needy that they’re needy,” he said of the homeless community. “It is our responsibility to take care of these brothers and sisters.”
Jones’ sister, Sherry Kruska, broke into tears as she talked about her brother, whom she described as a funny and misunderstood man. She said she knew something was wrong when she called his cellphone and he didn’t pick up. “I already miss him,” she said.
A friend remembered Jones as a man of his word. The friend, who shared only his first name, Regal, recounted the time he made a bet with Jones, who supported former President Trump. The men agreed: If Trump won reelection, Jones would get a “juicy, fat steak dinner with all the trimmings,” Regal said, and if Trump lost, Jones would buy Regal a “broccoli dinner.”
After Trump lost his reelection bid, Jones handed Regal $20 and told him to enjoy his dinner, even though Jones was upset about the outcome of the election, Regal said.
He said Jones taught him to keep his word “no matter how hurtful.”
Ferris, a Vietnam veteran, was remembered as a loyal friend and an optimistic man with a milliondollar smile.
“I never heard Randy Ferris complain about anything,” said longtime friend Randy Engel.
Engel said Ferris looked after a disabled friend until that person’s death a few months ago.
A woman who used to be homeless remembered Ferris as a protective “big brother” who helped her find food and showed her where to sleep — and where not to sleep — when she lived on the streets.
“He was just, like, the light of my day,” said the woman, who shared only her first name, Amber.
Brandy Glensky, of Journey Community Church in La Mesa, met Ferris as part of the church’s Hope for the Homeless program, which delivers peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in downtown San Diego.
“He was a bright, shining light,” she said.
“We need to do better,” she added, in reference to homelessness.
The Voices of Our City Choir, which includes singers who are homeless or were once homeless, sang hymns, while faith leaders read Scriptures and prayed for Diffendal, Jones and Ferris, as well as the victims who survived, some of whom were in attendance.
The driver accused in the crash, Craig Martin Voss, 72, was arrested at the scene. He has been charged with three counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and one count of driving under the influence of drugs causing injury. He pleaded not guilty in San Diego County Superior Court and was held in lieu of $1 million bail for two weeks.
A judge granted a defense lawyer’s request for Voss to be placed under house arrest March 30. If convicted of all charges, Voss will face up to 20 years and eight months in prison.