The Cossacks — Mr. Jimmy did not want to be quoted using the club’s name, referring to it instead as “the other side” — were not part of the meeting, but the Bandidos were. Eight Cossacks and one Bandido were killed in the gunfight, he said. “The only reason I am not in jail,” he added, “is that I got there late.”

The police on Monday were still sorting out what had happened at the restaurant off Interstate 35, and local officials were beginning an extraordinary booking process — arresting and charging about 170 people they had detained after the fight. The restaurant where the biker groups had gathered, a chain known for scantily clad waitresses, continued to face scrutiny over its handling of security. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission suspended the restaurant’s license for a week, and its corporate headquarters revoked its franchise agreement.

The local management said it was disappointed that Twin Peaks had “made a sudden decision to cancel our Waco franchise before all of the facts are learned.”

After the shooting, the state-run Texas Joint Crime Information Center issued an advisory that members of the Bandidos and the Cossacks “reportedly have been instructed to arm themselves with weapons and travel to north Texas.” The bulletin said officers throughout Texas “should be aware of the escalating violence between both groups and are to consider all Bandidos and Cossacks members as armed and dangerous.”

The one-page document said the Bandidos were believed to have summoned additional members from Arkansas and New Mexico as “reinforcements.”

Sgt. Patrick Swanton, a Waco Police Department spokesman, said that rather than overwhelm the jail, the police had used the Waco Convention Center as a staging area overnight to hold those arrested. The bikers were appearing before magistrates who were setting bond at $1 million each.