Mariano Rendon, the owner and on-floor host at El Volcán, testified under oath that he put “1 knee on his stomach” to stop a patron from reaching toward a security guard’s holster during an altercation in the early morning hours of Aug. 20, 2023.

Rendon told jurors the club’s dance floor was crowded and dimly lit when he saw a pile of people attacking someone: “I saw, like, just a ball, and then people were getting away. So I knew there was something.” He said he ran into the group, pushed people off and then placed a knee on the man to prevent the man’s hands from getting close to the guard’s weapon: “His his hands were touching the holster.”

The state admitted into evidence a phone recording and a cell‑phone video that Rendon said show only the final portion of the altercation. Rendon described his own surveillance footage as “very hazy,” and he told the court that club strobe lighting and camera placement made full review difficult. He said the video that later circulated did not show him approaching and peeling people off the pile.

Rendon also testified that a security radio and a baton went missing after the incident. He said the club “started GPSing it” and that the device’s ping showed a location at a tire shop and later in Nixon, Texas; Rendon told the court investigators and local police were shown the GPS information. He said he and staff flagged the missing equipment and attempted to locate it but that they did not recover the baton and the radio stopped functioning after a short period.

The witness described standard closing procedures at the club—removing beer buckets and announcing last call around 1:45 a.m. and requiring patrons to stop drinking by 2:15 a.m. under Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission rules. Rendon estimated the club’s floor area at about 10,000 square feet and its capacity in the upper hundreds; he said he typically staffs between eight and 13 security officers on busy nights and that the TABC-required minimum for his venue size is roughly three security officers.

Rendon testified his staff took photos documenting visible injuries to security personnel that night and that a porter later went to the hospital with a dislocated shoulder. He acknowledged he did not initially provide every internal camera recording or body-worn camera footage to law enforcement and said some footage was not turned over because it either was not available or because the club’s system had produced hazy video; he said the club did provide the dance-floor footage and the door camera clip that investigators used.

On cross-examination, the state questioned Rendon about the timing and completeness of materials he gave to police, why some interior cameras and any body-cam footage were not turned over, and whether his account changed after a clearer video clip showing him kneeing a patron surfaced weeks later. Rendon said multiple conversations and text exchanges with patrons followed the incident as he attempted to de‑escalate and reconcile with those involved.

No verdict was reached during Rendon’s testimony; the defense later rested. The trial record contains disputed video clips, photos of injuries, GPS tracking information for a missing radio and testimony from multiple witnesses about the club’s operations and security procedures.