Car kills 1, injures 4, after bar fight

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - A young woman has died and four other people were injured after being hit by a vehicle when a fight inside a bar escalated outside. The driver -- a 24-year-old woman -- is in police custody.

A scuffle started early Friday morning in the VIP lounge at Tap's Sports Bar. The owner told 24 Hour News 8 that those involved in the fight were kicked out of the establishment and the melee continued in the street.

According to a news release, witnesses told officers someone drove a vehicle onto the sidewalk near Weston Street and Ionia Avenue and hit two people. The driver went around the corner and onto another sidewalk and hit more pedestrians. The vehicle then fled the scene.

Five people were injured, including 19-year-old Tifanee Crews. She was taken to a hospital where she later died. The other victims were also hospitalized but later treated and released.

Then around 3:15 a.m., Grand Rapids police and state police troopers surrounded a house in the 1000 block of Butterworth Street SW. A vehicle parked at the home matched the description of the one that hit the pedestrians -- a 1998 four-door Cadillac.

Police used bullhorns to encourage residents inside the home to surrender. Shortly before 5 a.m., at least 12 people came out of the home, which is broken into apartments. One of those people -- a 24-year-old woman -- was the driver of the vehicle that hit the pedestrians, police say. She was arrested.

24 Hour News 8 talked to Crews' family who said she was not in any way involved with the brawl, but was outside the restaurant and followed the fight to merely watch.

Her father said Tifanee suffered from internal bleeding, both her legs were broken and her pelvis was shattered. Teion Crews said he watched her battle to stay alive, and is shocked she is now gone.

"And my daughter did what most youths do. She saw a fight outside and gravitated towards it, and it cost her her life today."

Tifanee is a graduate from Ottawa Hills High School. Her dad said she was working in sales.

The 24-year-old woman in custody is being held on an open murder charge, but will not be arraigned until Monday. No bond has been set.