CINCINNATI — Three people were taken to UC Medical Center early Sunday morning after a crash ended with their car smashing into the front of a downtown Cincinnati sushi restaurant, Cincinnati police said.
Police said the crash occurred shortly before 4 a.m. near the intersection of W Sixth and Race streets.
Though police said the cause of the crash is under investigation, witnesses told our crew the two vehicles involved were racing down the street before one lost control and crashed into the other. After that initial crash, one of the vehicles, a Toyota SUV, then crashed into Baru, a sushi and cocktail bar.
CPD officers on scene told our crew one person needed to be extricated, while bystanders helped another person out and a third person was able to get out of the car on their own.
"I was in my room reading and I heard a loud boom, like the loudest I've ever heard, and then I looked out my window, saw the crash, called 911 at 3:44 a.m. Then I just started describing everything from my balcony," Courtney Brown said.
All three people in the crash suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
"People got out of the cars. Some started to run, some started to fight each other and the smoke was really bad," Brown said. "Like, I couldn't breathe, it was that bad."
Witnesses also told us this is the second time a car has crashed into the restaurant since 2024.
The city's building department was called to the scene shortly after the crash. Both cars were towed away around 5 a.m.
Later Sunday, Baru posted to social media, addressing the crash.
"We are incredibly grateful to report that no guests or team members were harmed," the post reads. "As a precaution and to ensure everyone's safety, we will be temporarily closed while we assess the extent of the damages."
The restaurant did not give a definitive timeline of when it will reopen.
