In September 2017, Spencer Hight visited a bar in Plano, Texas, where he consumed a large amount of alcohol. From this bar, he drove to the home of his estranged wife, who was holding a viewing party for a football game with several others. He entered the house armed, and fatally shot his wife along with seven other guests, seriously injuring a ninth person.
Police responding to the incident later shot and killed Hight. "We've never had a shooting of this magnitude; never had this many victims," Plano Police Chief Greg W. Rushin said at the time.
Now, nearly two years after the tragic incident, the bartender who served him earlier that evening has been arrested and charged with negligence, after being accused of serving him alcohol when he was above the legal limit. Despite his intoxication, however, the shooting appeared to be carefully planned, with a .38 caliber handgun, a AR-15 rifle, and a folding knife on his person, with binoculars, another rifle and extra ammunition found in his car.
The 27-year-old, Lindsey Glass, was arrested by Plano police last week, with the reason cited as being her violation of state law. She was charged with a misdemeanour offence after allegedly breaking the law that prohibits bartenders from selling alcohol "to a habitual drunkard or an intoxicated or insane person". This offence may lead to up to a year in jail and a $500 fine.
Investigators say she should have known not to serve the perpetrator. According to KXAS-TV, an affidavit showed that an agent from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission claimed that Glass was trained and certified to identify the situation as one in which she shouldn't have served.
That evening, she reportedly served him several drinks despite his clear intoxication. A medical examiner later determined that Hight's blood alcohol level was four times the legal limit in the state, CBS reported. In addition to this, Hight reportedly produced a knife and a gun in the bar (prohibited from Texas bars) and, according to a text sent by Glass to a colleague, he had told her he "had dirty work to do".
Scott Palmer, Glass' attorney, has denied that his client is in any way responsible for the actions of the killer that evening. “Spencer Hight’s decision to destroy the lives of eight other people is unrelated to the four drinks that Hight consumed at the Local Public House on September 10, 2017,” the attorney said in a statement to CBS News.
Glass was friends with both Hight and his estranged wife, and reportedly flagged the strange behaviour of the gunman to both her co-worker and the owner of the bar. The owner allegedly advised his employees to not call the police, as per HuffPost. Following this, Glass and her co-worker drove to the home of Hight's wife. Once they saw his car parked outside, they called 911, but it was too late.
“Lindsey was the only person who tried to stop Hight, when Lindsey became suspicious of Hight, she contacted her manager," Palmer said. "When her manager’s efforts did not resolve Lindsey’s concerns, she followed Hight and then, as her concerns grew, she called 911. Lindsey never expected for Hight to commit this horrific act.”
The permit for the bar, located on Spring Creek Parkway, was canceled in October. A lawsuit was filed in 2018, accusing the bar of negligence for serving Hight. A civil suit proposed by the victims' families for a million dollars in damages was later dropped.
