Uber driver, forgotten man in a politicized tragedy, was a Colts fan who bridged a racial divide

In a tragedy involving a Colts player and a drunken-driving suspect who was in the country illegally, the figure sometimes forgotten in the Tweet storms and political commentary was a man who both loved the Colts and bridged racial divides.

Jeff Monroe, 54, was the Uber driver who was killed along the roadside while trying to help his ailing passenger, Colts player Edwin Jackson.

A black man and a native of Chicago, Monroe met and fell in love with a white woman from the west side of Indianapolis. When his fiancee, Deborah, brought him home to meet his soon-to-be Hoosier brother in law, Monroe was nervous.

“He was scared to death that I would slam the door in his face,” said James Lambert, Deborah’s brother. Even as late as the 1990s, not everyone in their circles was open to an interracial marriage. But Lambert tried to put Monroe at ease. “I opened the door up and greeted him into my home and told him my home was his home. We’ve been best friends since then.”

That was more than 20 years ago.

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Monroe moved to Indianapolis, married Deborah and came to love the Colts. “He was a firm believer that if you were in that town,” Lambert said, “you supported the home team.”

He also went to work at Allison Printing Systems, a west-side business that prints billing statements and confidential benefits information for other businesses. The job not only required technical skills with advanced computer printing but also trustworthiness. His boss said Monroe was good on both accounts.

“He was a very good guy, very loyal,” said J.P. Thomas, president and CEO of Allison Printing Systems. “He was a very great employee.”

A couple of years ago Monroe began driving for Uber to make extra money.

“He liked meeting people," Lambert said. "He liked talking to them. That was up his alley.”

He used the extra cash to take Deborah on trips. Already, they had been to Alaska, Italy and China, Lambert said. He was saving for their next adventure: The 2020 Olympics in Japan.

Deborah Monroe did not respond to IndyStar requests for comment.

When driving for Uber, Monroe typically stayed in the Avon-Brownsburg area, Lambert said. But he also would carry passengers between the airport and Downtown. The incident that claimed his life took place on I-70 about 4 miles west of Downtown.

That Monroe was driving at 4 a.m., when the crash occurred, wasn't unusual. He worked night shifts at the printing plant, and "his nights were like our days," Lambert said.

Whether Monroe would have recognized Jackson, 26, as a pro football player outside his Colts uniform, Lambert says, “only God knows.” But in a job where passengers sometimes have had too much to drink, this wasn’t the first time Monroe had stopped his car for an ailing passenger.

“If they were getting sick, he would pull over,” Lambert said. “He would get out to assist them and make sure they were alright.”

What was unexpected with this tragedy, Lambert said, was how it quickly became politicized. Within minutes of the announcement that the drunken-driving suspect, Manuel Orrego-Savala, was a man in the country illegally, the deaths became a talking point in the immigration debate.

While Monroe had no children of his own, Lambert said, he had 27 nieces and nephews he loved as if they were his own. For them and everyone in the extended family, such politicizing brought added pain.

“Two real good people’s lives were taken by a drunken driver. No matter if he was illegal or not, he was a drunken driver,” Lambert said. “It is no longer about the two gentlemen who lost their lives, their family and my family. It is about politicians now. That should never happen on an incident like this.”

One kindness given to the family in the wake of the tragedy: The Indianapolis Colts Foundation offered to pay for the funeral. The family, Lambert said, gratefully accepted.

Services will be held later this week.

Call Robert King at (317) 444-6089. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.