A 21-year-old man is in the hospital in critical condition following a shooting on the city’s East Side late Tuesday night, according to San Antonio police.

Officers were called around 10 p.m. to a parking lot of an apartment complex in the 4600 block of East Houston Street, not far from South W.W. White Road and Sam Houston High School after receiving word of a person wounded.

According to police, the victim was shot in the head during an altercation with another man who also lives in the apartment complex. The suspect fled following the shooting.

Police said witnesses heard shouting just before the gunfire. The wounded man was taken by EMS to Brooke Army Medical Center, where he is listed in critical condition. His name has not been released.

The San Antonio Police Department, the San Antonio Fire Department and EMS all answered the call.

SAPD did not say exactly what the argument was about. So far, no arrests have been made.

The investigation is ongoing, police said.

A man pumping gas at a gas station on the city’s Northwest Side was struck by gunfire early Wednesday morning, San Antonio police said.

The incident occurred around 2 a.m. at a Chevron gas station near Loop 410 and Callaghan Road.

According to police, the man was simply pumping gas into his vehicle when he heard gunfire and then realized he was hit once in the leg.

Police said they believe the shooting came somewhere from the access road of Loop 410. A motive is not currently known.

The wounded man drove to University Hospital in his own vehicle to ask for help. He is expected to recover.

At this time, police do not have a description of a suspect. The investigation is ongoing, police said.

There’s no handbook on raising children, but Metro Health is trying to help families navigate struggles with the Positive Parenting Program, or Triple P.

Brea Moore with Metro Health’s Violence Prevention helps run the program.

It started in February 2020 as a way to fight family violence with an evidence-based curriculum. The program is already being used in other Texas cities.

“Triple P is available to any parent, whether they’re just looking for a little bit of support or parents who really feel overwhelmed and they need support not only in terms of positive parenting strategies, but they also need support, maybe in terms of needing to learn how to emotionally regulate,” she explained.

The program reached about 2,000 parents in 2021. It’s also free for any interested family in Bexar County. They offer different levels of support based on the different areas families need help in, including a new curriculum for co-parenting.

Every child is different so the strategies can be tailored by parents to fit their needs, Moore explained.

“We get a lot of questions about communication, and we get a lot of questions about, you know, just creating structure,” Moore said.

The programs are offered in a class and as an at-pace online course. Triple P is specifically for those with children under 12-years-old, but they can help connect those with teenagers to other available programs.

To find out more, call 210-207-4599 or visit their website.

Updated at 2:20 p.m.:

The AMBER alert for Helen Pierce, 11, of Burnet has been discontinued.

Officials on Wednesday said she was safely located and is in custody of law enforcement.

Original Story:

A search is underway for an 11-year-old girl, and a suspect is wanted in connection with her disappearance, according to the Burnet Police Department.

Authorities issued an AMBER alert in the disappearance of Helen Pierce on Tuesday evening.

The child is believed to be in “grave or immediate danger.”

Helen was last seen Sunday around 11:30 p.m. in the 900 block of North Hill Street in Burnet. She was last seen wearing a white shirt with blue jean shorts.

Helen is described as being 4 feet 10 inches tall, weighing 100 pounds, with brown hair with blonde highlights and brown eyes.

Officials are also looking for a suspect who is connected with her abduction. However, no description has been given at this time.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Burnet Police Department at 512-756-8080.

At least 1,929 Bexar County voters who cast a ballot in the March 1 primary did not have their vote counted, largely due to a technicality under a new, controversial voting law.

Following the final tally of late mail and provisional ballots on Tuesday, Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacquelyn Callanen told KSAT that 14,180 mail ballots had been counted — 1,929 shy of the 16,109 mail ballots the county had reported receiving in its preliminary election reconciliation.

That was despite an opportunity for voters whose mail ballots were initially rejected to “cure” them and get them counted.

The elections department also received several more trays of mail ballots in the days following the election, meaning the final tally of rejected ballots is likely higher.

Callanen estimated it would take the rest of the week to get that tally, but having roughly 2,000 ballots being disqualified from being counted is unusual.

“We’ve never seen it in those numbers,” Callanen told KSAT.

The high number of rejected ballots was linked to new, stricter voting rules recently put in place by the Republican-backed Senate Bill 1.

On election night, Callanen told reporters the county was running at about a 35% rejection rate for mail ballots. Before SB 1 went into effect, she said a typical election would “probably” have a 2% or 3% rejection rate.

READ MORE: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signs contentious voting measure SB 1 into law Tuesday

SB 1 made numerous rule changes for voting, including a requirement for voters to write the ID number associated with their registration on the envelope of a mail ballot — either a state ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.

When it came to the biggest problems causing rejections, Callanen said it was about “50/50″ between voters not writing down any number at all, likely overlooking the designated space for it under the envelope’s flap and surrounded by other small print — or writing a number that didn’t match what was on their voter registration card.

For example, if a voter wrote their driver’s license on the mail ballot, but they they were registered to vote under their Social Security number, the ballot couldn’t be accepted.

“If I got to be leader for the day, I would redesign that form because the form says to give either your TDL ‘or’ the last four of your social. So they gave one, but we had the other one on file,” Callanen said. “So I would love to do nothing better to change that ‘or’ to ‘and’ and give us both so that we stand a better chance.”

Callanen recommended voters do that on their own anyways to cut down the odds that their mail ballot might be rejected.

She also talked about the issues seniors face under the new SB 1 mail ballot requirements. Some may not have either ID number on their voter registration card, she said, because it didn’t use to be a requirement.

“So that’s where you see a lot of this. So we didn’t have — even if they put their number on the ballot that they sent — or, in the beginning, in the application — and we would enter it, but if we didn’t have anything to bounce it against, it had to be rejected,” Callanen said.

By the time the county reported the preliminary totals on March 2, 4,464 of the 16,109 mail-in ballots received back by that point — close to 28% — were either rejected or pending.

Callanen said the county attempted to reach voters whose ballots were initially rejected with phone calls, emails, and letters.

Voters had the next six days following the election — ending on 5 p.m. Monday — to “cure” their ballot so it could be counted, whether by coming to the election department in downtown San Antonio, or online through the Secretary of State’s website.

It’s not clear yet how many ultimately did take the opportunity to “cure” their ballots, though Bexar County Republican Party Chairman John Austin, who is in a runoff election against Jeffrey McManus, thinks many people didn’t realize they could do it online.

Mail ballots are used by seniors, voters with disabilities, and those who won’t be in the county to vote in-person. The tally also includes mail ballots cast by military members.

Although, in general, Democrats cast more ballots by mail than Republicans in the primary, Callanen could not say if they had the same rejection rate.

Bexar County Democratic Party Chairwoman Monica Ramirez Alcantara told KSAT on Monday, as the vote curing process was still ongoing, that she had been hearing from “very upset, very frustrated Democrats who feel that, you know, this is just another obstacle put in their way.”

“I believe it — certainly believe it was by design, to cause confusion and chaos,” Ramirez Alcantara said of SB 1.

The voters KSAT spoke with on Monday as they visited the Bexar County Elections Department to cure their ballots, though, seemed unbothered.

“Even though we’re old, we need to learn that there’s some rules, and we need to look and see and so we can comply with the rules,” said Noemi Moreno. “And also, for me, at least I get out of the house if I have to come out here again.”

Callanen said election officials would be searching for ways to make the process smoother next time, especially since elections on May 7 and May 24 are fast approaching.

“We’re going to just do public service announcements, everything we possibly can to not have this happen again,” Callanen said.

The CDC recently updated a checklist for developmental milestones for children. While it’s a step in being proactive to identify delays, some health professionals fear it could have the opposite effect.

Parents across social media have voiced concern over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent changes to its Developmental Milestones checklist.

It’s the first time the CDC updated the list since its release in 2004. Now, the CDC has decided to delay the time for when kids should be crawling, talking and even walking.

“CDC’s milestones and parent tips have been updated and new checklist ages have been added (15 and 30 months),” the CDC said on its website.

Cases of delayed developmental milestones among children have increased during the pandemic.

“We’ve seen children referred more for speech delays (since the pandemic began) because they don’t necessarily interact with other children,” said Rosemary Morgan, a physical therapist at Baptist Healthlink Rehab in Stone Oak with 11 years of experience. “Then, (we) also (have referrals dealing) with mobility more, because of the containers that (kids) spend time in, because it does make life easier (for parents). Containers, meaning carriers, bouncers, rockers, jumpers. There’s so many things you can put a baby in that make life easier but don’t necessarily help in development for these babies.”

According to the CDC, it is OK for a 30-month-old child to say only about 50 words.

“Our data, our research (and) charts that we follow, we see an average of about 400 words in a 30-month-old,” said Lindsey Cárdenas, a speech language pathologist for Assessment Intervention Management, or AIM, Partners in Education. AIM is a San Antonio-based company that provides specialized educational services for children.

“So, those are significant differences that are concerning to us because our fear is that parents will wait a little bit longer to see if they catch up. (As) opposed to seeking intervention and seeking information and resources to know how to support those communication needs,” she said.

Research shows a correlation between a child’s language milestones and academic success.

“If they get into kindergarten as a five-year-old, and they only have 30 50 words, that is going to be a red flag,” Cárdenas said. “They’re supposed to be able to rhyme. They’re supposed to be able to segment and blend words. And, at that point, (if) the vocabulary is not there, we aren’t able to intervene as quickly as we would have.”

In the case of speech pathology professionals like Cárdenas, the CDC’s recommendations will not change their approach as the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, or ASHA, governs them.

ASHA’s mission is to make effective communication accessible and achievable for all.

“As speech language pathologists, we learn first and foremost. We create awareness. We educate, and we provide resources pre- any of these changes from the milestones,” Cárdenas said.

The push is now to increase awareness for early intervention.

Pediatric physical therapists are also concerned about some of the new recommendations. The CDC no longer lists crawling as a milestone. And when it comes to walking, the CDC states parents shouldn’t be worried unless their child isn’t walking at 18 months versus the original 12 months.

To learn more about the importance of a child crawling and walking, watch the video below that features an interview with physical therapist Rosemary Morgan from Baptist Healthlink Rehab in Stone Oak.

To view the CDC Milestone Moment Checklist, click here.

The first local survey of its kind about mental health issues created by teenagers for teenagers was released Tuesday for youths ages 12-19.

The questionnaire covers an array of tough topics that will help community youth leaders improve mental health care in San Antonio.

The survey was created by the teenagers in two programs — the city’s San Antonio Youth Commission and Metro Health’s Project Worth.

“Mental health is an issue affecting a lot of people our age. It’s a chronic problem, and most of us are not getting the help we actually need,” said Michael Martinez, a teenager who is a chair of the San Antonio Youth Commission and a Project Worth Teen Ambassador.

Martinez addressed the public Tuesday at a press conference, explaining why he and his peers created a survey for other teens about the mental health issues they face.

“There’s not enough time taken to teach us social and emotional learning skills, how to maintain healthy relationships, understand the diversity of our peers or how to take care of our own mental health,” he said. “We will continue to see this same problem getting worse.”

The 27-question survey asks important questions about stress, depression, even drug use and self-harm.

“I think it’s necessary to ask the tough questions in a gentle way that doesn’t trigger so that we can get a deep understanding of the level of mental health challenges that we’re seeing,” said Melody Woosley, director of the Department of Human Services.

Woosley said the survey is completely anonymous, and every question gives teens the option to say, “I’d rather not answer that.”

They also want to hear from young people who are not in school.

“There’s a good-sized population here of what we call ‘opportunity youth,’ more of the 16 to 18-year-olds. These are students that have dropped out of school or are not connected socially. We want to hear from them or their peers on what their needs are,” Woosley said.

She said all groups involved would assess the results of the survey.

“The Youth Commission and the ambassadors, they will take the results of this and make recommendations on what initiatives or what services the community needs,” Woosley said.

She said it’s important that the teens themselves make recommendations on what they and their peers need and what would help the most.

“We can advocate for more effective ways to expand our support network and the support we want at this age — deciding where to invest millions of dollars in our school and community resources,” Martinez said.

Woosley said the survey results would show the City of San Antonio and Metro Health if they need to tweak current programs, scrap them altogether or add new ones.

The city is helping get surveys to kids by reaching out to schools, churches, and other organizations that involve youth.

They hope other parents and family members in the community will spread the word and have teens fill out the survey.

The deadline to complete the survey is April 8, and they’re hoping to get thousands of responses.

To take the survey, click here.

A San Antonio man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for the distribution of child pornography.

Lynn Maxwell Gerstner, 72, pleaded guilty on July 11, 2020, to one count of distribution of child pornography, according to a news release.

Court documents showed that Gerstner had befriended a minor in South Carolina online back in 2019. The relationship became sexual when Gerstner asked the minor for nude photos and sexually explicit videos, officials said.

The minor sent sexually explicit photos and videos to Gerstner but when the minor tried to end the relationship with Gerstner, he contacted their employer.

Gerstner told the employer that he had explicit videos of the minor, and the minor should be terminated from their job. The employer contacted law enforcement in San Antonio, authorities said.

On April 23, 2019, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant for Gerstner’s home and recovered numerous images of child pornography on cellphones belonging to Gerstner.

Some of the images were of children as young as four years old, officials said.

Gerstner purchased a new phone the day after his was seized and brought it with him during an interview with the FBI.

The new phone contained a large amount of child pornography that Gerstner is accused of downloading from his cloud account, officials said.

“This defendant spent the majority of his life as a predator, exploiting young children for his own sexual gratification,” U.S. Attorney Ashley C. Hoff said. “Even after law enforcement agents seized his devices, he immediately went out and obtained new devices so he could continue to have access to child sexual abuse materials. He not only sexually exploited minors, but he also actively attempted to cause additional harm if they didn’t comply with his sexual demands. The court recognized the increased danger he presented to our society and sentenced him appropriately.”

In addition to the sentence of 20 years, Gerstner was ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution and a lifetime of supervised release after prison, officials said.

As Russia launched its invasion into Ukraine, another movement mobilized — one of generosity and giving. Watchdogs offer advice before you donate money to the cause, so your gift has the most immediate impact.

“I encourage people to give with their heart but also give with their head,” said Kevin Scally with CharityNavigator.org. “By that, I mean to do some due diligence.”

To help your donation have maximum impact, he suggests giving to an organization with a proven track record.

“Look for an organization that has dealt with these situations before,” Scally said.

The needs of the refugees and people stuck in the war zone are great and immediate. To give effectively and expediently, the Better Business Bureau suggests asking questions of the nonprofit.

“Can they get to the affected area?” said BBB’s Jason Meza. “Not all groups are positioned to get relief quickly, so check to see if the charity already has a presence in Ukraine or surrounding countries.”

To maximize your dollars, ask how much is going to actual relief and the amount going to administrative costs. Financial responsibility and transparency are qualities to look for, according to Scally.

“You know, not just where your money is going, but what your money is doing,” he said.

For help finding charities spearheading Ukraine relief efforts, both www.charitynavigator.org and the BBB’s nonprofit arm, www.give.org, have lists of nonprofits they’ve vetted.

Beware of scammers looking to take advantage of current events and your emotions. If you receive an email, phone call or social media post, even if it appears to be from a friend, you should independently verify it.

“They are engaging in tactics to duplicate profiles of people, maybe your friends, maybe people who live in Ukraine — creating fake profiles, fake appeals and asking for donations,” Meza said.

When you give, using a credit card can offer some fraud protection. Never give via gift cards, wire transfers or peer-to-peer banking apps.

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San Marcos police have arrested a Canyon Lake man involved in a fatal hit-and-run on Saturday.

Police said Giovanni Fernandez, 21, is facing a charge of accident involving death.

The incident occurred around 6:45 a.m. in the 3300 block of I-35 in San Marcos when officers found Adam Martinez, 31, lying near the west access road.

Martinez was pronounced dead at the scene by the Hays County Justice of the Peace.

After an investigation, police said they collected evidence and surveillance footage indicating Fernandez’s car hit Martinez. Martinez was then seen driving away from the scene.

Fernandez was later located by police and booked into the Hays County Jail. His bond has not been set at this time, officials said.

More on KSAT:

16-year-old NISD student charged with arson after series of grass fires near Brennan High SchoolMan arrested in 2019 slaying of San Antonio woman found shot in car along highway, police say