Mercedes Ayers talks to media at Washington Park in Cape Girardeau. Ayers is accused in the July 24 assault of Jeana Terry, who is gay. Ayers admits to having a fight with Terry in defense of her brother but denies that it had anything to do with Terry being homosexual.
Contestants line up back stage during the Little Miss Firecracker Pageant, part of Jackson’s Fourth of July Celebration at Jackson City Park.
Natalia Post, 8, left, Luxloo Khart, 10, and Jimmy Pitzer, 10, play in the entrance to the Devil’s Ice Box cave at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park. The children are students at Windsor Street Montessori School and go on a field trip to a nature area every Friday, their teacher, Holly Linneman, said.
Children try to capture one of four pigs during the Greased Pig Contest at Chaffee’s Annual German Days Festival at Frisco Park. Sixty-eight children competed in three categories at the event.
Cape Central mascot Brynna Bockhorst, 14, tries to cool down from her pre-game activities before the Tigers’ 43-14 home loss to the John Burroughs Bombers.
Pamela Hardin, Columbia’s NAACP chapter vice president, hands out blue and gold balloons before a rally at the Second Missionary Baptist Church. Organizers chose the balloons to mirror the NAACP’s official colors, Missouri NAACP Chapter President Mary Ratliff said. The rally was timed to occur simultaneously with the start of the America’s Journey for Justice March, an 860-mile march from Selma, Ala., to Washington, D.C.
Missouri Comets players mingle in the spotlight as they are introduced to the crowd before the Comets’ 22-6 loss to the Baltimore Blast at the Independence Events Center.
Blue Springs’ Jayce Thomas holds his head in his hands after faulting a second time in the long-jump at the Suburban Big Six Track and Field Championship at Blue Springs High School. Thomas won the event on his next attempt with a 22 foot, 7 inch leap.
Bernie’s Jordan Ellenburg, left, Chelsea Wagner and Ellen Snider after the Mules’ 25-21, 25-21 loss to the Winona Wildcats in the class 1 championship game of the Missouri High School Activities Association State Volleyball Championship at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.
Notre Dame shortstop Tiffany Wood takes some practice swings in the bottom of the seventh inning during the Bulldogs’ 4-3 home win over the Cape Central Tigers. Wood started a two-out rally in the seventh with a single to left field, and later scored the tying run.
Cape Central’s Sydney Deneke makes her first dive during the Show Me Conference girls swim meet at the Central Municipal Pool in Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Lily Smith, middle, waves to supporters while holding up a sign that reads “Thank You,” during a candle light vigil for her son Bryson Smith, 5, right, at Women’s and Children’s Hospital. When Smith and her son couldn’t attend a candlelight vigil, the crowd came to them and showed their support through “#prayforbryson” T-shirts, bracelets and candles.
Missouri State Highway Patrol’s tactical officers advance on a house in the 800 block of 15th Street during a search for a suspect in the deaths of Sandra Sutton and her teenage son Zachary Wade Sutton in Sedalia, Mo.
Cape Girardeau Police take Mindi M. Mahan, 24, of Marmaduke, Ark., into custody after a pursuit ended at the intersection of Cape Rock Road and Perryville Road. Eddie D. Kent, 54, of Cape Girardeau, and 31-year-old Eric D. Kent of Jonesboro, Ark., were also arrested on the scene.
Annie Duffield, 8, walks down the stairs of the Scott County Courthouse during the celebration of the courthouse’s centennial in Benton Saturday, June 16. The building, Scott County’s sixth courthouse, was designed by Henry H. Hohenschild in 1912 and dedicated on April 20, 1914. The courthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in January of 2004.
A priest walks past as others attempt to shield themselves from the sun during Marian Days festival at the Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix in Carthage, Mo., the the largest Roman Catholic festival in the United States. Tens of thousands of Vietnamese-American Catholics gather to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary during the annual event.
Mindy Swayne, the practice manager at the Lee’s Summit location of the Kansas City Cancer Center, shaved her head as part of Shave to Save, a fundraiser for the Kansas City chapter of the American Cancer Society.
Fair goers arrive and leave as the sun sets on the East Perry Community Fair in Altenburg, Mo.