A resident of Italy, Marco Ricchi, 46, and a Fort Lewis College student, Allen Duke, 23, were identified as the men who died from injuries suffered Saturday when they were hit by an SUV while walking along Main Avenue.
Durango Police Department Sgt. Rita Warfield also identified the driver of the Chevrolet Suburban, 76-year-old Bobby Lehmann, who lives in both Durango and Texas.
Warfield said Ricchi was visiting Durango. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Duke was taken to Mercy Regional Medical Center with severe injuries, and died there.
Lehmann was uninjured.
The investigation is still ongoing, and circumstances of crash remain unclear, Warfield said
“There were a lot of witnesses, and our detectives are getting all the information together to try to determine what caused this to happen,” she said.
No charges have been filed as of Sunday afternoon.
Around 4 p.m. Saturday, Lehmann was northbound on Main Avenue in a white Chevrolet Suburban with a Texas license plate when the vehicle jumped the curb.
The vehicle came to a stop between the Royal Motel and a sign, Detective Josh Newman said Saturday. The two pedestrians were on the sidewalk, but they were not together.
“It’s a tragic accident,” Warfield said.
On Sunday, red roses were placed at two different locations outside the Royal Motel where the two men were killed. In one spot, someone left a crucifix with the word “Hope” on it, as well as a bag of candy.
Efforts to reach Ricchi’s family were unsuccessful Sunday. According to his Facebook page, he was from Latina, Italy, about an hour’s drive south of Rome.
Posts to his page indicate Ricchi was visiting Durango on vacation with a friend to run a marathon. Pictures from the past few weeks show the two men on a Southwestern tour through the Grand Canyon, Valley of the Gods and Monument Valley.
In his last post, Ricchi uploaded photos of Durango, which show he had taken the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad just days before his death.
More then 100 posts of condolences had been placed on his page Sunday afternoon.
Duke was studying accounting, said his friend and co-worker Gus Elbert. The two knew each other since their freshman year four years ago.
Elbert said Duke was on his way to work at the Adode Inn when he was hit. He said Duke walked every day to work.
“He was a really easy going, polite kid,” he said. “He just had a lot of friends.”
According to Duke’s Facebook page, he’s from Parker, a town about 25 miles southeast of Denver.
Information was not immediately available about the driver, Lehmann.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
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