LAKE OZARK, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri bar owner is defending his use of two NFL jerseys, including Colin Kaepernick’s, as doormats outside his building’s front door.

KOMU-TV reports the display outside the SNAFU Bar in Lake Ozark originally showed Marshawn Lynch’s Oakland Raiders jersey taped to the ground to the left of Kaepernick’s 49ers jersey.

After someone who saw the display complained on the bar’s Facebook page that the arrangement of the names could be construed as a message calling for violence against Kaepernick, the station reports bar owner Jason Burle switched the jerseys’ placement.

Burle tells the station he meant no personal harm by the display. He says the jerseys were put there to protest NFL players kneeling during the national anthem and insists “it’s not a race thing.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Four Jackson County jail inmates are facing felony charges in the assault of a corrections officer in August.

Jackson County authorities announced Wednesday that the charges are meant to send a message to other inmates that assaults on jail guards will not be tolerated.

Those charged are 20-year-old Stephen Curtner; 24-year-old Rodney Rodgers; 20-year-old Osiris Sneed; and 20-year-old Tyrone Willard. They are each charged with third-degree assault, a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.

The officer who was punched and kicked by the inmates suffered a concussion and other injuries. His name wasn’t released.

Willard separately faces misdemeanor assault charges after another officer was assaulted earlier in August.

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — Protesters are demanding an independent investigation into the arrest of 22 people Saturday at a popular mall in suburban St. Louis.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that protesters packed a St. Louis County Council meeting Tuesday night to make the case for the investigation. Police have defended the arrests at the St. Louis Galleria in Richmond Heights, Missouri, saying demonstrators got out of hand.

One speaker, Al Gerber, told the council “all the violence” came from police.

After the meeting, Council Chairman Sam Page said it’s unclear which officers did what and how much the county can do, since the police came from multiple agencies.

The demonstrators were protesting the Sept. 15 acquittal of Jason Stockley, a white former police officer, in the killing of a black man.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A man got more than he bargained for when he attacked a kick-boxing instructor as she ran on a suburban Kansas City trail.

The Kansas City Star reports that 51-year-old Stephanie Steiniger, of Overland Park, Kansas, ripped her arm free and kicked him in the groin. Police say the apparent kidnapping attempt happened Tuesday night.

On Wednesday, Steiniger warned other women in a public plea while wearing a purple tank top that read, “Strong is the new pretty.” She says she always believes “everything happens for a reason” and that “maybe it’s so I can warn other women to be aware.”

Overland Park Police spokesman John Lacy says fighting back is important in a kidnapping attempt, even if the assailant has a weapon. Police are looking for a suspect.

HOUSTON, Mo. (AP) — Even as authorities in rural southern Missouri dismiss the possibility that a transgender teenager’s death was a hate crime, questions remain about why the quiet 17-year-old was killed in such a ghastly manner.

Authorities identified the burned remains as those of Joseph Matthew Steinfeld Jr. That’s the birth name of a transgender girl who went by the name Ally Lee Steinfeld.

The remains were found last week near the mobile home of one of the alleged killers. The body had been burned. Some of the bones were in a chicken coop. Authorities say both eyes were gouged out and Steinfeld had been stabbed in the genitals.

Steinfeld’s mother says her child was living in a mobile home with all three people now charged with murder.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. says it is investing $374 million at five U.S. plants to support production of its first American-made hybrid powertrain.

The Japanese automaker announced the upgrades Tuesday at facilities in Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Toyota says 2.5-liter engines made in Kentucky and transaxles produced in West Virginia will be used in North American-made hybrid vehicles, such as the Highlander SUV manufactured in Princeton, Indiana.

Toyota will create 50 jobs at its Huntsville, Alabama, plant, which will build engines for its cost-saving New Global Architecture production strategy — a sharing of common parts and components among different vehicles. None of the other upgrades announced Tuesday will result in immediate net job gains.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A 4-year-old boy is in critical condition in a St. Louis hospital after shooting himself in the mouth.

The shooting happened Tuesday afternoon in north St. Louis. The child was also struck in the hand by the same bullet.

The child’s name has not been released, and police have not disclosed whose gun he had or how he got it.

The shooting was the second in four days involving a young child in St. Louis. A 2-year-old accidentally shot and killed his father on Saturday.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City man who declared “I won” after killing his wife has been sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

A Clay County jury in August convicted 45-year-old Thomas Santamaria Jr. of first-degree murder in the beating and strangulation death of his 50-year-old wife, Yuvett Santamaria.

Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Daniel White said video and audio recordings took when Santamaria was being led away from the crime scene show him telling an acquaintance “I won.”

The victim was found dead on a bedroom floor in March 2015. Her husband was asleep in the bed in the same room.

The Kansas City Star reports trial testimony indicated Santamaria suspected his wife was having an affair and wanted a divorce.