SAN ANTONIO — A video making the rounds on a San Antonio social media account sparked outrage, and a multi-agency investigation, after a teen can be seen slapping and punching a girl who was unconscious.
On Saturday, police arrested Ernesto Barrera, 17. He faces an assault charge after police say he hit a 15-year-old girl who was unconscious.
According to an affidavit, on August 5, a 17-year-old girl was driving around several passengers who were not sober. She told police that when she stopped to get food, she tried to wake up the victim, but the younger girl was unresponsive.
Police say this is when Barrera began hitting the 15-year-old girl. The driver of the vehicle said the victim had been drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana and using Xanax, according to an affidavit.
Police say the victim was also making a police report for being sexually assaulted around the same time as the attack.
The victim told police her jaw was hurt as a result of the incident.
As of Sunday night, Barrera remains in the Bexar County Jail on a $1,000 bond.
KENS 5 was made aware of the video Thursday that had been retweeted nearly 10,000 times.
According to the person who posted the video to Twitter, the video was originally uploaded to other social media accounts, including Instagram, by a user account that has since been deleted.
The individuals in the vehicle, including the teen witnessed slapping the girl, were reported to KENS 5 to be students at Jefferson High School. However, Leslie Price, Chief Communications Officer for SAISD, said that the district has "no information on the people in the car, with the exception of the male first seen in the video, who is a former student of the District."
KENS 5 was also able to determine that one or more of the students may be from a Northside ISD school and reached out to district officials for more information. NISD's Executive Director of Communications, Barry Perez, responded with the following statement.
"We became aware of the video through social media and alerted administration and NISD police. Identities of all of the individuals in the video have not been confirmed, although we do know that at least one of the individuals is an NISD student. The Northside ISD police is continuing their investigation. It is my understanding that other law enforcement agencies were also notified."
Because the incident appears to involve minors, KENS 5 has blurred all of the faces of the people in the video, and will not be sharing a link to the original post to conceal the identity of any possible victims.
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