Bar Blamed In Lawsuit Over Plano Mass Shooting: Reports

PLANO, TX — A lawsuit related to the September 2017 shooting that left eight people dead accuses a Plano bar and one bartender of over-serving the shooter the day of the murders.

According to a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission report and a lawsuit filed by the victims' families, a bartender at The Local Public House in Plano noticed the shooter, Spencer Hight, was very intoxicated, but continued to serve him, CBS News reports.

Hight had entered the bar around five hours prior to the killing spree. At that time, he drank two gin and tonics and left at 2:57 p.m., the Dallas Morning News reported.

He later returned at 6:39 p.m., and Lindsey Glass, the bartender who served Hight, noted that as he took a seat at the bar he pulled out a large knife and spun it around on the bar. She told her coworker, Timothy Brandt Banks, via text that Hight had a knife and was "drunk and being weird," the Dallas Morning News reports.

The lawsuit claims Banks reported the man's behavior to bar owner Jerry Owen, who told Banks not to call the police, The News reported.

Hight left the bar just after 7:30 p.m. with a blood-alcohol level of at least 0.33 percent, The News reported, and headed to his estranged wife's home.

Hight entered her home and shot eight people dead with an AR-15 rifle. He seriously injured another person and was later killed after exchanging gunfire with Plano police.

The lawsuit from the victims' families names Glass and The Local Public House as defendants, CBS News reports. Banks and Owen were named in a civil complaint. The lawsuit also claims they are responsible for over-serving Hight and allowing weapons in the bar.

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