SAN ANTONIO – A visually impaired man said he was pushed down the stairs and beaten up by security at a North Side club while being removed from the establishment last fall.
Michael Roque, 28, faces a felony charge of assault on a security guard and a misdemeanor assault charge after a Sept. 13, 2025, incident at Burnhouse Bar located in the 4500 block of North Loop 1604 West.
Bar management said Roque tumbled down the stairs after taking a swing at a member of its security team and that he landed punches to the faces of multiple bouncers during the physical altercation.
“I was scared for my life. I didn’t know what I had did wrong,” said Roque, who was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa as a toddler.
The progressive eye disease erodes the cells of the retina.
Roque said he can see the outline of shapes in bright light but cannot see at night.
‘I hardly ever go out’
Roque uses a mobility cane but claims he left it at home after his friend agreed to help guide him around the night club.
“I hardly ever go out,” Roque said. “I went against my better judgment to try and be a good friend, and we went ahead and we went out that night.”
Roque said he had his hands on his friend’s shoulders and bumped into someone while being guided across the dance floor.
According to Roque, a member of security then approached him and his friend and told them they had to leave the club.
Roque said his friend stopped on the platform of the outdoor stairwell to try and explain that Roque has a visual impairment.
Roque claims a member of security then pushed him, which caused him to fall down the remaining stairs.
Roque said he was handcuffed, taken to a parking lot and beaten up.
“They grabbed me by either arm. They picked me up, and they slammed me on the floor,” said Roque, when asked by KSAT what happened in the parking lot.
San Antonio police body-worn camera footage obtained by KSAT Investigates showed Roque leaning against a patrol vehicle and being treated by paramedics for facial injuries around 12:30 a.m.
Roque told KSAT security cracked three of his teeth during the altercation outside.
Medical records provided by Roque’s attorney show his client was also diagnosed with a concussion and facial abrasions consistent with road rash a day after the incident.
“Michael’s not the first victim, right? He’s just one of the most vulnerable victims,” said Joe Hoelscher, Roque’s attorney.
“In this case, the security company seems geared towards a very aggressive, militaristic approach, even though they don’t seem to have that kind of training,” said Hoelscher, who asserted that some security at the bar that night was dressed like they were going to war.
Body camera footage showed the armed security guard, who claimed Roque punched him in the cheek, wearing a ballistic vest outside of his uniform.
At first, the armed security guard declined to press charges against Roque before he changed his mind.
“Yeah. I’ll go ahead and do it,” the man told an officer.
‘He’s not blind; not that I’m aware of’
The second victim listed in the SAPD report, Pejman Amrollah, identified himself to officers on scene as the club’s head bouncer.
Amrollah was shown in the body camera footage wearing a Burnhouse Bar t-shirt. He told officers Roque punched him in the forehead and lip.
Amrollah complained to officers of having pain above his left eye, the footage showed.
The footage also showed SAPD officers remarking about once again being called to the bar.
During the footage, a third member of security asked an officer, “You never get tired of coming here, man?”
“I hate being here, dude,” an officer said two minutes later. “It’s the worst.”
Four minutes later, the same officer was heard on the footage saying, “I do not want to be here.”
Reached for comment, Amrollah told KSAT he had no idea who pushed Roque down the stairwell.
“I had nothing to do with the incident,” Amrollah said.
However, he proceeded to then answer several questions after KSAT pointed out that he was seen throughout the SAPD body-worn camera footage.
“Well, I have nothing to do with him going down the stairs because I check ID’s at the door, right?” Amrollah said.
KSAT asked the bouncer about Roque being able to land multiple punches to the faces of security.
“He’s not blind,” Amrollah said. “Not that I’m aware of.”
Amrollah referred additional questions about the incident to bar management, which reached back out to KSAT hours later.
Bar operator defends actions of security
Bar operator David Amrollah spoke with KSAT at length via telephone about the September 2025 incident.
He said plainclothes security inside the club escorted Roque and his friend out of the establishment after Roque directed racial slurs at other people.
When Roque reached the platform of the stairwell, David Amrollah said he turned and threw a punch at the armed security guard listed in the report.
According to David Amrollah, he, Roque, Roque’s friend and the security guard all fell after Roque failed to land the punch.
David Amrollah then said Roque quickly bounced up and then struck Pejman Amrollah in the face before Roque was taken into custody.
David Amrollah denied that Roque was beaten up during the incident.
“Mr. Roque was looking for trouble from somebody that night,” David Amrollah said.
He claimed there is no footage of the altercation after KSAT pointed out that the club has exterior security cameras.
David Amrollah said the bar uses an outside company to provide security and spends between $2,500 and $3,000 each weekend for the service.
He said the bar does not control what the security guards wear but that a guard being outfitted with a ballistic vest outside of his or her uniform is becoming the industry norm.
SAPD officers identified the company in the body camera footage as Spur Global Security Firm.
The listed owner of the company did not respond to calls or emails seeking comment for this story.
Hoelscher, when asked if Roque had used racial slurs the night of the incident, told KSAT the following:
“Mr. Roque adamantly denies using racial slurs towards security officers or any other provocative acts before he was assaulted. No such accusations appear in either of the security statements to police immediately after the incident despite being questioned repeatedly. Burnhouse had video that could’ve substantiated their story, if it was true. Instead, they deny any video exists. The history of everyone associated with Burnhouse and their security is a history of deception, bad debt and exploitation. Mr. Roque is hardly the first victim of David Amrollah and Burnhouse. Unless they are held accountable, he will not be the last. Anyone who goes to Burnhouse is putting their own safety, possibly their lives, at risk.”
Joe Hoelscher, Michael Roque’s attorney
The 16 pages of police records obtained by KSAT for this story, including the offense and supplemental reports, did not mention the use of racial slurs by anyone associated with the case.
Roque is free on bond on both charges and is still awaiting indictment in the felony assault case, court records show.
Hoelscher said he aiming to have the charges against Roque dismissed, in part, because he believes security escalated an incident with a person with a disability.
‘He refused to help me cover myself after bouncing my head off the sidewalk, and there were people recording my exposed self’
Burnhouse Bar has a list of negative Google and Yelp reviews specifically about its security.
One woman wrote in a Google review that she was assaulted, handcuffed and left exposed on a sidewalk by a bouncer after she refused to hand over her prescription attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication.
“He refused to help me cover myself after bouncing my head off the sidewalk and there were people recording my exposed self,” the reviewer wrote. “I posted pictures of my bruises hours after I got out of jail. The bouncer did this, the police were absolutely wonderful and got me out as quickly as possible. Of course no charges were filed against me as I could prove the medication was mine.”
“Come here if you want to experience security guards that love to overuse and abuse their power!” wrote another Google reviewer.
In 2025, SAPD responded specifically to Burnhouse at least a dozen times for public intoxication and assault incidents and one sexual assault call, records show.
An SAPD incident report from last May states a security guard put a customer in a chokehold after seeing the man smoking in the patio area of the bar. The incident led to a fight between multiple members of security and the man, the report states.
In November, a woman told San Antonio police she was drugged by a man at the bar and then later raped after leaving with him in a vehicle.
The woman told police she woke up lying on the ground outside of a nearby hotel with her stockings ripped, an SAPD incident report states.
The report describes the suspect as another customer at the bar.
Since 2018, Burnhouse has paid more than $31,000 in civil penalties issued by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC).
A majority of the fines were for credit law violations, which occur when a retailer fails to pay its suppliers by a required deadline.
David Amrollah told KSAT that credit law violations are common in the bar industry and that business has been tough coming out of COVID and with ongoing construction in that area of town.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.