SAN ANTONIO – We have new video of a 2024 arrest now at the center of a civil rights lawsuit.
Officers arrested three sons of former Bexar County Constable Michelle Barrientes Vela.
Officers arrested three sons of former Bexar County Constable Michelle Barrientes Vela. She watched as officers hauled them away .
She watched as officers hauled them away and, in an exclusive interview, she said her sons are owed an apology.
Anthony, Michael and Carlos Barrientes Vela are calling for a trial, and more training for San Antonio first responders. Their mother said she’s still trying to wrap her head around how the situation escalated so quickly.
The cellphone video shows two of her sons in handcuffs, one of them falls to the ground
“Mom he’s throwing me on the ground,” he said. “I’m recording.. I’m recording him,” Michelle responded.
The video shows the moments before the brothers were taken into custody in April of 2024. It doesn’t show what leads up to it.
“Just a 9-1-1 call for a medical call,” Michelle said. “One of my sons’ girlfriends had a medical episode and they were just wanting emergency care like anybody else.”
It ended with Carlos, Michael and Anthony’s arrests.
According to the SAPD incident report, Michael tried riding in the ambulance with his girlfriend but wasn’t allowed to because of his “actions and attitude”. A fight reportedly started when officers tried to stop him. Michael was also tazed by officers.
Each of them was charged with assault of a peace officer and interfering with public duties. Now they’re taking the issue to court, filing a lawsuit last year; it claims their civil rights were violated.
The lawsuit also alleges unlawful search and seizure, unlawful entry, and excessive force on the part of San Antonio police.
“It was pretty intense,” Michelle said. Her name is not attached to the lawsuit, though she witnessed the entire interaction. “It was just a medical episode a minute ago. How did we get in seconds to this?”
Her sons are suing the City of San Antonio, SAPD and the San Antonio Fire Department (SAFD) — claiming SAFD made a “false and misleading report” of a “violent bystander” on the property during the call.
“My boys don’t.. wanna speak right now because they’re in the legal matters and I respect that,” Michelle said. “But as their mother and as someone that was there and someone that’s been trained in excessive force, de-escalation…there’s so many things that went wrong.”
The Barrientes Vela brothers are representing themselves in court and are seeking damages for physical, emotional and psychological injuries.
Their mother said she fears her past as a Bexar County constable may have made the situation worse.
“I think that because of who I was that night is the ending result of what we saw,” she said. “I will always be impacted by what I went through [in] my journey here in this county. Still, to this day, I’ve never gotten an apology”
We’ve reached out to the City of San Antonio, SAPD and SAFD for comment about this lawsuit and have also requested the body camera footage from that night.
We haven’t heard back from any of the agencies yet.
We’ll let you know what they say if they do.