The male victim, whom police did not immediately identify, was a regular customer, according to restaurant staff. He was sitting on a bench near the window waiting for his niece, who was in the parking lot when the accident happened.

Kenny Truong, the owner of the Rice House restaurant in the 8400 block of Lindbergh Boulevard, said the driver of the BMW SUV was an elderly woman. He said it appeared she had parked in a parking space in front of the restaurant before the vehicle plowed into the building.

The victim was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. The driver of the SUV was not injured, police said.

“I’m just so shocked right now,” Truong said. “I don’t have the words to express the pain I feel for his family.”

Truong’s cousin, Ken Chuc, was frying food at the restaurant when the SUV passed by. He said he would have been trapped between the counter and the refrigerator if he hadn’t been working in the kitchen.

“I was so lucky,” he said.

Police were unable to determine the identity of the driver, but said they were cooperating with investigators. The cause of the accident is still being investigated, police said.

Chuc said it took the ambulance about 10 minutes to get to the restaurant and in the meantime he tried to calm the driver down. He said he did not know whether to move the man as he was injured under the car.

Truong said the restaurant is usually busy, but at the time of the incident the victim was the only customer. Marc Wallace, a barber at the shop next door, said he sometimes sees a line out the door and was glad no one else was there at the time of the accident.

“There are always at least five to eight customers in line,” he said.

Wallace said he heard a loud bang and ran outside to find the car had crashed through his neighbor’s wall. He said the car’s wheels were still spinning after the crash.

“It sounded like an explosion,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting that.”