ANDERSON, Ind. — Anderson police have said an argument early Sunday morning over a parking issue led to the death of one woman and the injury of three other people near an Anderson club.

Dytika D. Wilkerson, 28, of Anderson, died Sunday morning at an Indianapolis hospital after she was struck and then run over by a vehicle around 3:20 a.m. outside of Oasis Bar and Grill at West 16th Street and Arrow Avenue.

Anderson police spokesman Mitch Carroll said Stephen Rush, 34, of the 5500 block of Maryland Road in Indianapolis, struck Wilkerson and three others after being beaten up himself outside the tavern. Witnesses told officers that before Rush struck the four people, he had come to the aid of his girlfriend who was involved in an argument because she had been parked in the alleyway.

According to the police report, Rush and his girlfriend were trying to leave Oasis after 3 a.m. after the bar had closed. As they were pulling out of the alley, another vehicle — driven by Wilkerson — pulled in blocking their exit. Rush’s girlfriend got out of her vehicle and a female passenger and Wilkerson got out of Wilkerson’s vehicle and the three began to argue. Rush then got out of his girlfriend’s Dodge Durango to aid in the fight.

Witnesses told police that Rush hit the two women who got out Wilkerson’s vehicle. A group of others in the parking lot of the bar rushed to the scene to aid the women and started to attack Rush, Carroll said.

Rush had several signs of injury — his earrings had been torn from his ears, his face was swollen and he had scratches on his legs and arms, Carroll said.

Rush then jumped into his girlfriend’s Durango, locked the doors and drove away alone. As he drove away, people were pursuing his vehicle punching and hitting it. Carroll said that one of the windows was shattered from someone punching it. After he got out of the alley, Rush drove down 16th Street striking the two men and two women before driving away from the bar, Carroll said.

Three of the four he struck — including Wilkerson — were involved with the altercation that happened before the incident, Carroll said.

Wilkerson died at an Indianapolis hospital where she was taken via air ambulance after being struck. The other three — Marquai Boards, 32, Dennis D. Boards Jr., 29, and Timothy S. Hammerlund, 32, all of Anderson — were treated for their injuries at Community Hospital Anderson and were later released. Injuries to Wilkerson showed that she was not only struck by the vehicle but also run over by it while the other three were hit by the vehicle and pushed out of its path, Carroll said.

“It is our belief that it was intentional,” Carroll said. “Rush swerved over and raced the engine heading toward them.”

Oasis owner Amos Cooley said he saw Rush hit the people and said everything “happened so fast.”

“It was crazy,” he said. “There was no reason for it to happen. There was never a problem inside the club. It seemed to happen for no reason. It definitely was not an accident. He never had an intention of stopping. It is no wonder more people didn’t get hurt.”

Cooley said the four people hit were struck in two different waves. Initially Rush pulled out of a parking spot and hit one person and drove away, he said. Several went to the aid of the man assuming that Rush had left for good but moments later Rush had turned around in a nearby parking lot and revved his engine driving back down 16th Street toward the crowd gathered off the road near a fence.

After the sport-utility vehicle hit the four people, Rush stopped to get his girlfriend — also on 16th Street — and drove away, Carroll said. There were three cell phones in the vehicle, and no one attempted to call 911 to report the incident.

The Durango was stopped about 20 minutes after the incident on Interstate 69 near mile marker 2 by State Police who had gotten a description of the vehicle. He was transported back to Anderson police headquarters where he was questioned before being booked into the Madison County Jail on a charge of Class C felony criminal recklessness. Bond was set at $20,000. Carroll said more charges are expected as the investigation continues.

Rush has a lengthy criminal record out of Marion County, Carroll said, including marijuana possession, battery, battery with serious injury, criminal confinement, domestic battery, residential entry, disorderly conduct and check deception. He spent a year as an Indiana Department of Correction inmate for a previous conviction of criminal recklessness. He was released Jan. 6, 2003.

Contact Abbey Doyle, 640-4840, abbey.doyle@heraldbulletin.com.