Infamous Local Bar Faces Closure Over Gun-Wielding Patron and Drunk Bartender

One of the city’s more infamous watering holes will likely be shut down for 35 days on a license suspension, after a gun-wielding man making threats and a drunk bartender attempting to drive away during a multi-man bar fight came under TABC scrutiny recently.

Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Agent Shuddell Lindsey has been working on the cases against La Copa Cobana for months, and cites a list of three violations made since September 2014 that include over-serving, an aggravated breach of the peace, and an intoxicated permittee.

According to Lindsey, who investigated the cases, a Hispanic male suspect was at the bar on Sept. 14 when he got into an argument with two other male patrons. The bar owner then attempted to get the suspect to leave, but instead he followed the other two men into the parking lot, pulled a gun on them and threatened to kill them.

The patrons then re-entered the bar, Lindsey explained, and asked the owner to call the police because neither had a working cell phone, but she refused, stating they didn’t have any proof. She then kicked them out of the bar.

Later that night, at closing time, the suspect returned with the gun and pulled it on the owner and her husband and said he was going to kill them. In fear for their lives, both managed to escape, fleeing to a convenience store up the road where they waited for 30 minutes before driving home.

“How I came across it is doing an inspection, going up to the bar and one of the employees asked, ‘What are we going to do about the guy with the gun that’s up here going to kill us?’” Lindsey said. “So I had a talk with the owner and she just confessed to it all.”

Lindsey said a physical description of the suspect and the weapon were provided and the man may be facing criminal charges for the threats.

The inspection that led to the report took place on Oct. 18, and during that visit, Lindsey witnessed a bartender serving a man who “could barely even walk”.  The man was on probation at the time for felony DWI and blew a .210 in a portable breath test.

After catching the bartender passing off a beer to the man, the licensee was charged with selling to an intoxicated person.  That charged resulted in a five-day suspension of the owner’s liquor license in December.

On Jan. 11, La Copa Cobana was again filed on when multiple agencies responded to a 911 fight call in which multiple suspects had turned on a DPS licensed, armed and badged security guard.

“Some suspects were fighting so he tried to break it up and so they assaulted him, so he ended up having to pull his firearm on these guys,” Lindsey explained. “When we all get there with the PD and we’re there, there was an intoxicated employee trying to drive DWI and she’s asking me could I help her get her parking break off her car because she couldn’t get her parking brake off and get it in gear.”

As it would turn out, the employee was the niece of the owner and had been working there for only a few weeks at the time. Lindsey conducted a portable breath test and she blew .19, and her aunt was given an intoxicated licensee/permittee violation.

Paired with the aggravated breach of peace case involving the man with the gun, the owner of La Copa Cobana can either pay a $10,500 fine or shutter the doors for 35 days on a temporary license suspension. As of March 10, the owner was leaning toward closing down.

If the owner does not pay the fine, La Copa Cobana, 1329 Hughes St., will be closed from March 18 through April 21.

The bar is also known from a past incident in which two patrons rode horses to the bar and tied them up outside to avoid a later DWI. The horses then got free and were hit and killed in a car crash.