Bartender Who Served Mass Shooter Is Charged

Lindsey Glass arrested for serving Spencer Hight, who left the bar and killed 8
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted May 6, 2019 11:00 AM CDT
Bartender Who Served Mass Shooter Is Charged
Flowers are left at a makeshift memorial for the victims in a shooting in Plano, Texas, on Sept. 12, 2017.   (Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News via AP)

In 2017, a drunk Spencer Hight drove to his estranged wife's home and fatally shot her and seven others at a party. Police then killed the 32-year-old Hight. Nearly two years later, authorities in Plano, Texas, have filed new charges in the mass killing—against the bartender who served Hight before his rampage, reports KXAS. The details:

  • The accused: Bartender Lindsey Glass, 27, is accused of violating the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code, a misdemeanor that could result in up to a year in jail, a fine of $500, or both. The code states: "A person commits an offense if the person with criminal negligence sells an alcoholic beverage to an habitual drunkard or an intoxicated or insane person."
  • The texts: Authorities say Glass should have stopped serving Hight before he left the Local Public House because he was showing signs of intoxication. They cite texts she sent to another bartender, including that Hight "had 2 gins and he only had 2 beers and a shot when he came back [sic] I think he was at another bar while he was gone." And: "Spencer has a big knife on the bar and is spinning it and just asked for his tab and said I have to go do some dirty work ... Psychoooooooo."

  • Very drunk: Hight had a blood alcohol level of 0.33, four times times the legal limit to drive, when he was killed, reports the Dallas News. He went to the bar about 2:30pm the day of the shooting, stayed for a half-hour, then returned again about 6:30 and drank more, according to a TABC investigation.
  • Troubling signs: A lawsuit filed by relatives of victims asserted that before leaving the bar, Hight "ran into a large picnic table on the patio hard enough to move the table," reports FOX 4. Then "he staggered back inside and again took a seat at the bar," where was served beer. The suit also stated that he displayed a gun and a knife.
  • Followed him: The lawsuit, drawing from the state investigation, notes that the second bartender (the one Glass had texted) tried to prevent Hight from driving and was on the phone to the bar's owner about him when Hight drove away. That bartender and Glass actually followed Hight when he left, and Glass called 911 when they realized he was heading to his wife's house, reports the Dallas News. The lawsuit was dismissed earlier this year.
  • In her defense: Glass' attorney says it "is shameful of the Plano Police Department to go after the person who was vital in trying to stop the horrific events of that evening."
(More Plano, Texas stories.)

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