Police identify pedestrian killed on I-5

The pedestrian struck by a vehicle while jogging on Interstate 5 north late Wednesday was identified as 20-year-old Portland resident Evan Davenport. Earlier this week, the Washington State Patrol asked the public for help identifying the deceased man.

Davenport was jogging in the right lane of the highway when he was hit from behind by a 2014 Jeep Wrangler at about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. When state troopers arrived on scene, just south of Mill Plain Boulevard, they found a dead man in the roadway and Marion Thomas outside of his vehicle, Trooper Will Finn said.

Thomas, 49, at first said he wasn’t driving and later admitted that he had been the one behind the wheel, Finn said.

“He said he was in shock, that he was upset and nervous. … He said he could not believe this was happening again,” Finn said.

In June 2014, Thomas was driving a 2007 Ford Mustang coupe on Northeast Highway 99 in Hazel Dell when he struck a pedestrian who was trying to cross six lanes of the road south of 78th Street, according to The Columbian archives. An ambulance took the pedestrian, 45-year-old James Grubbs, to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, but he died shortly after arriving at the hospital.

In the 2014 incident, Thomas stayed on scene and cooperated with investigators, who determined Thomas was not impaired or distracted. No criminal charges were filed in that case.

As for Wednesday’s incident, the case remains under investigation.