DENVER - Two people died following a wrong-way rollover crash involving a Metro Taxi in southeast Denver Sunday morning.
Denver Police responded to the 2600 block of South Monaco Parkway at 5:54 a.m.
Police said the crash happened after a Metro Taxi cab was going northbound in the southbound lanes of South Monaco Parkway.
“What really shakes me up is that it is a double fatality,” said Julie Mangum, who was woken up by the crash.
A witness pulled the cab driver out of the car after it rolled and caught fire, but the driver, identified as 27-year-old Abdurazaq Bilal, died at the scene.
Bilal moved to the U.S. from Ethiopia less than one year ago and began working for Metro Taxi to support his family overseas, according to Bilal's friend, Adane Alemu.
"It's very hard to explain to them what happened because they're not here," Alemu said. " I wish it didn't happen this way.
Alemu describes Bilal as a positive and nice man who enjoyed life.
The driver of the silver Hyundai was also pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. That person was later identified as Denver resident 71-year-old Konstantinos Mantourlias.
“An accident is bad enough but knowing it was a fatality, and a double fatality at that, I mean it's just not something you see every day,” Mangum continued.
Eastbound Yale Avenue was closed at South Monaco Parkway for the investigation.
Police are looking into whether or not speed and alcohol contributed to the crash.
“We are shocked and deeply saddened at the events and the loss of life,” said Robert McBride, president and owner of Metro Taxi Denver, said in a statement released Sunday afternoon. “We offer our condolences the drivers’ family and friends. This is an indescribable tragedy.”
Bilal had been driving for Metro Taxi since September 2015