BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (WTVF) — Friends are grieving after an Uber driver washit and killed along Interstate 24 as he was helping a stranded couple when their original Uber got a flat tire.
Alaa Alhashimi, 38, also worked at Citizen's Barber Shop which is located inside the Sola Salons building in Brentwood.
Clients learned about what happened from stylists. "The original Uber driver had a flat, and he told the passengers to get another Uber driver. His name was Alaa and he worked right there. So he was our friend and we loved him, it was just so sad," Kim DiGiacomo said.
Alhashimi’s passengers, a husband and wife, were also hurt. He was released from the hospital, but she was listed in critical condition according to the police release.
As friends grieve, they reflect on how Alhashimi was a light in their day-to-day lives. "He was one of the good ones, you know how they say only the good die young there ya go, he’s somebody that would have helped anybody. he helped all of us around here," DiGiacomo said.
Across the hall at 28 Olives Salon, stylist Amy Bellwood said she will miss him a lot. "You can feel it in here this morning like everybody’s just sad," Bellwood said.
They said he was always smiling and willing to help people. "Sometimes it’s dark in the parking lot at night, and he was always willing to walk somebody to the car, or just to lend a hand to any of us if we needed it," Bellwood said.
They hope the community will know he had a caring soul. "It doesn’t seem real we guess, we are all trying to wrap our brains around that he’s not going to be here anymore," Bellwood said.
The funeral will be held at the Al-Mahdi Islamic Center at 7 p.m. Tuesday night. In addition, there's a GoFundMe account to raise money to send his body back to family in Iraq.
