Bartender on criminal charge after serving alcohol to man who went on to murder eight people

A bartender has been charged for serving drinks to a man who later went on to kill his estranged wife and another seven people.

Lindsey Glass, 27, was arrested last week and charged with a misdemeanour violation of "sales to a certain persons" in Texas.

The law in the southern US state prohibits selling alcohol to a "habitual drunkard or an intoxicated or insane person".

She was working at the bar in Plano where Spencer Hight went before he turned up at his estranged wife Meredith Hight's home and shot her and seven of her friends.

The group had been together to watch the Dallas Cowboys match.

Hight was shot and killed by police officers responding to the incident.

Glass had tried to persuade Hight not to drive after she served him, and her attorney, Scott Palmer, said it is "not in the interest of justice" to arrest her.

According to NBC, Glass told another bartender Hight had been at the bar earlier in the day had and had two gins, returning later to have two beers and a shot.

She speculated that he had been at another bar while he was gone, and later told a colleague in a text: "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."

Officials say Glass should have known not to serve Hight and that he displayed signs of intoxication.

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The victims included 27-year-old Meredith Hight, 33-year-old Anthony Michael Cross, Olivia Nicole Deffner, 24, James Richard Dunlop, 29, Darryl William Hawkins, 22, 31-year-old Rion Christopher Morgan, Myah Sade Bass, 28, and 25-year-old Caleb Seth Edwards.

The bartender's lawyer said in a statement: "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.

"This arrest is not in the interest of justice and appears to be a last-ditch effort by the Plano PD to make someone pay.

"Lindsey Glass is the person who called 911. Not only did she know Spencer but she was friends with Meredith and was supposed to be at the party that evening."

Glass faces a year in prison, a $500 (£380) fine or both if found guilty.