“Never been that bad:’ Possible Road Rapid Shooting Latest Downtown Crime Rises

The owner of a high street bar said his staff was an innocent bystander when gunfire broke out on Sunday.

Cincinnati police report that a 37-year-old man was shot dead in the 600 block of the street before midnight on June 29.

Kyle Smith, owner of Bay Café, told The Inquirer that it was his doorman put on his leg with bullets.

Smith said the bar’s surveillance camera footage indicated that it could be a highway rage between two drivers on the street. He said the videos showed a red SUV hitting its brakes before the driver began to exchange gunfires and a black car turned around it.

Smith said there were about 10 shots in total, four of which entered his agency and broke the front window glass. Smith said he spent the night in the hospital with the doorman after a bullet scratched his leg, but he expected it would be fine.

Police said some people at the scene also reported minor injuries due to broken glass.

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The shooting on the street, just one block from Aronoff Center, was during what Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval called “the unacceptable rise in crime.” Police Chief Teresa Theetge attributed much of this to minors and told the inquirer in a recent interview that she was setting up a circuit task force to proactively target crime hotspots.

Smith said safety is his top priority at the bar, which reopened in April after changing the owners and catering to the crowds established by the service.

“I've been working in the city for eight and a half years,” Smith said. “It's never been that bad.”

Cincinnati police did not disclose any other details about the shooting. The investigation is still underway.

Recent data show that violence in urban areas and property crime continues to rise

Violence and property crimes have increased significantly so far this year. Neighborhood crime data as of June 29, so far this year, there have been:

• There were 30 robberies, and 18 points to this point by 2024, an average of 12.67 in the past three years.

• 56 thefts/breaks and troubled incidents, compared to 21 by 2024, with an average of 23.67 in the past three years.

• 242 automatic thefts, compared with 133 by 2024, and an average of 130 in the past three years.

According to Toarman, Bay Horse Cafe Doorman is the tenth person filmed downtown so far this year, a city dashboard that was last updated on June 24. By this time last year, six people had been shot dead in the city.

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Overall, the shootings in Cincinnati this year have declined compared to the shootings at this time last year. City data shows that in 2024, there were 135 shootings this year.

However, the number of people killed in city-wide shootings has remained the same. So far, 30 people have died in the shootings by 2025, to this point last year.

The city has released a crime statistics dashboard on public safety and other topics and has been updated with semi-rules. Cincinnati Police Crime Analysis Department also publishes crime data by nearby locations, usually updated weekly.

The post originally appeared in Cincinnati Inquirer: “Never been that bad:” Downtown Shuphting’s latest crime rises near Bar