As omicron cases continue to climb, San Antonio businesses are making sure their staff and clients are feeling safe by offering COVID testing.

At Geekdom, a co-working space downtown, COVID testing conducted by Community Labs is offered weekly to staff and members.

“Typically within 24 hours, you have your results and you know whether or not you’re safe to continue to come back to work, be around family members and all different kinds of things,” said Geekdom CEO Charles Woodin.

Community Labs has been doing COVID testing at Geekdom since August 2020 and is currently testing 50 to 100 people weekly.

“It has been a game changer to prevent community spread within our organization, within our companies that occupy our space,” Woodin said.

Following the winter break, Community Labs CEO Sal Webber said they expect to see a spike in positivity cases.

“We normally see spikes in positivity once people have been indoors for events such as Christmas or Thanksgiving and with omicron we’re expecting this to be a big one,” Webber said.

Community Labs conducts weekly PCR tests at businesses and local school districts.

“We’ve grown our footprint to reach over 300 campuses and businesses across Bexar County, as far south as Laredo. Everyone uses us for what’s called assurance testing. They’re looking for confidence that the people that are coming to work or to school are healthy and safe, for those who test positive then they can go into quarantine. And overall, when you do this every week, that reduces the spread,” Webber said.

With COVID tests hard to come by, Geekdom member Daniel Leal said he is happy to have this testing option available.

“I’m really, really glad that it’s offered here as an option. It’s very hard to get testing done right now,” Leal said.

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A San Antonio Police Department civilian employee has been arrested on a felony charge after investigators said she struck a man in the street New Year’s Day and then drove away.

Jessica Claire, 28, was taken into custody just after midnight Jan. 1 and charged with failure to stop and render aid. She was also booked on three outstanding traffic warrants, booking records show.

Claire, a police services agent since early 2017, was placed on administrative leave following her arrest, an SAPD spokeswoman confirmed Monday.

Claire is accused of running into a man with her vehicle in the 400 block of Devine Street, near downtown, while he was standing in the street lighting fireworks.

The victim suffered a head injury and was taken to Brooke Army Medical Center for treatment, court records obtained Monday by the KSAT 12 Defenders show.

SAPD officials said Monday the man suffered non-life threatening injuries.

After Claire continued to drive away from the scene, a witness followed her in his vehicle while Claire drove the wrong way down Florida Street, records show.

The witness eventually pulled in front of Claire’s vehicle in order to stop her from fleeing, damaging both of their vehicles. The witness then held Claire and a passenger in her vehicle at gunpoint and ordered them out of Claire’s vehicle, records show.

Claire told investigators at the scene that she knew she hit something but was unable to see what it was because of smokey conditions and continued to drive away, records show.

Claire’s passenger, a 19-year-old woman, told investigators she saw the victim in the street and told Claire to stop, but that Claire “did not believe her and kept driving.”

Court records show a handgun and bullets were found inside Claire’s vehicle during a search. She has not, however, been charged with unlawful carry of a weapon, records show.

Claire was released from jail on a $30,000 bond Saturday and is scheduled to appear in 437th District Court on Feb. 16.

She did not have a defense attorney listed, at last check.

This week in San Antonio business bankruptcies include deeproot 575 Fund LLC, deeproot Growth Runs Deep Fund LLC and more. For the year, San Antonio has recorded 72 business bankruptcy filings.

San Antonio police say a double shooting on the city’s Northwest Side early Monday was not a random crime.

They believe the two men who were shot inside a home in the 2100 block of Clower Street were the intended targets of the violence.

Police got called to the home after the attack, which happened shortly after 4:30 a. m.

They say a 50-year-old man told them he woke up to someone pounding on his front door.

“They opened the door and there were two gentlemen with guns,” said Sgt. Steven Ozuna with SAPD. “They were demanding to see one of the occupants of the house.”

A later report said the gunmen actually were asking for two occupants of the home.

The man who opened the door, however, was not one of them.

Police say he initially refused, telling the gunmen that everyone else was sleeping.

The gunmen, though, didn’t take no for an answer.

“He actually got pulled out to the front yard and zip-tied and they threw him on the ground,” Ozuna said.

Eventually, that man was able to stand up and run to a neighbor’s home for help.

The gunmen, meanwhile, went inside the home and shot the two other occupants, police said.

Those victims, who are 52- and 62-years-old, later were rushed to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

“One of them was struck in the back,” Ozuna said. “It was an in-and-out wound that went in his lower back. And the other one was shot in the upper shoulder.”

The man who was zip-tied suffered only minor injuries.

Police say they tried to question him but he was too upset to offer a lot of details about the shooters.

They say the only description they have is that the gunmen left in a silver Jeep with a black top.

Officers searched the area but did not find that vehicle or the gunmen.

An 87-year-old and his granddaughter marked a major milestone at the University of Texas at San Antonio last month when they crossed the stage together for the December commencement ceremony.

Melanie Salazar and her grandpa, Rene Neira, both received degrees on Dec. 11 and were able to end their academic journey together.

Salazar spoke with KSAT 12 and said she is “very thankful to have shared that moment together” with her grandpa after he originally started his studies at St. Mary’s University in the 1950s.

She said Neira fell in love, started a family and began working at a bank, which put his academic career on hold.

“Throughout that time he did a lot of advocacy for the Chicano movement and the economic development of the South Side of San Antonio. He was civically engaged and through his activism, he grew his interest in economics,” Salazar said.

“He went back to school in the ‘80s when his children were older,” said Salazar. “He went back again, taking a few classes here and there in the ‘90s, ‘00s, and 2010 after the death of his wife Mary Lee in 2009.”

Neira went back to school again at the same time Salazar started classes and the two graduated from Palo Alto College with their associate degrees, walking arm-in-arm across the stage in 2017.

Neira took a few classes at Texas A&M San Antonio before transferring to UTSA where Salazar was studying.

Salazar told KSAT she was studying for her bachelor’s degree in Communications and Neira was working to finish his bachelor’s degree in economics.

Neira ended up having to take medical leave from school after suffering a stroke, according to Salazar.

“Soon after, the COVID-19 pandemic began and classes all went online. With his continuing declining health and without being technologically inclined, he was not able to fully finish his degree,” Salazar said.

ICYMI: Something very special happened this weekend at #UTSA Commencement: Rene Neira, 87, crossed the stage with his granddaughter, Melanie Salazar. She received her B.A. in Comms. He will earn his B.A. in Economics. Family goals!

#UTSAGrad21 @UTSAHC @UTSACOLFA @UTSABusiness pic.twitter.com/jSsUSeyR4F

— UTSA (@UTSA) December 13, 2021

According to a Facebook post from UTSA, Neira is terminally ill and now in hospice care, but is only a few credits shy of earning his Bachelor’s Degree.

Despite being a few credits short, Salazar and her family successfully advocated for Neira’s work to be recognized.

Salazar said Neira was given a Degree of Recognition and wants to “share the message that anyone can go to school or go back to school to earn your education.”

“If Rene with hearing loss, declining health, without a car, was able to do it, so can you,” Salazar said.

The pair went viral after Salazar pushed Neira across the stage, making it to the Good News Movement on Instagram where their story has garnered more than 52,000 likes.

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