ST. LOUIS (AP) — Police will not seek charges against the suburban St. Louis minivan driver who struck and killed a Patriot Guard Riders motorcyclist who was escorting a veteran’s funeral procession.

The decision was announced Wednesday.

The accident happened Monday afternoon when a minivan struck 64-year-old Mark Schroeder. He died at a hospital later that day.

Schroeder was part of the Patriot Guard Riders who were escorting a funeral procession to Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in south St. Louis County.

Police say the minivan driver was stopped for a traffic light and saw the funeral procession. She thought the procession was passed and attempted to cross the road when the light turned green, striking Schroeder.

 

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Federal prosecutors in Alabama say a Missouri woman has been indicted on eight counts in a multistate crime spree.

Authorities said 30-year-old Brittany Nicole Harper of Joplin, Missouri, was charged Wednesday with conspiracy to transport a stolen vehicle across state lines, two counts of transporting a vehicle across state lines, three counts of carjacking and two counts of brandishing a weapon during a violent crime.

Prosecutors say Harper was involved in crimes that span four states. The pursuit ended February 5th when Harper’s boyfriend, Blake Fitzgerald, was fatally shot by police in Florida.

Authorities say the couple stole a Cadillac during a test drive in Missouri, later carjacked victims at gunpoint in Alabama and Georgia, and also were involved in a home invasion.

It’s unclear if Harper has an attorney.

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A new Ronald McDonald statute has arrived in Burlington, Vermont, after vandals burned, decapitated and cut the feet off the old one that sat outside a Ronald McDonald House for sick children and families needing to be close to the University of Vermont Children’s Hospital.

The Burlington Free Press reports that the new smiling statue was chauffeured from Springfield, Missouri, arriving Tuesday morning with a police escort.

Ken Coleman and his wife, who donated and delivered the statute, had learned about the Burlington Ronald McDonald’s plight from Coleman’s mother. His family had been in the McDonald’s restaurant business for nearly 30 years before he sold his four locations in February.

MEDICINE LODGE, Kan. (AP) — Officials say a wildfire that burned hundreds of square miles of rural land in Oklahoma and Kansas this week destroyed at least 41 structures in both states.

Oklahoma Forestry Services spokeswoman Hannah Anderson says authorities in both states determined 16 residential structures and 25 minor structures were destroyed in the blaze.

Officials have yet to determine the cause of the fire, which started last week in Woods County in northwest Oklahoma and spread into Kansas. The fire was mostly contained Wednesday, with crews monitoring for hot spots.

Agricultural officials are estimating the damage. The Oklahoma Forestry Service says about 600 head of cattle died. The Kansas Department of Agriculture says no cattle death estimates are immediately available.

FULTON, Mo. (AP) — A central Missouri man with a history of drunken driving offenses faces a new charge after he was spotted driving a lawnmower recklessly.

Forty-four-year-old Jeremy Cochran, of Fulton, was charged Tuesday with driving while intoxicated, tampering with evidence, resisting arrest and assault on a law enforcement officer. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

The Columbia Daily-Tribune reports that he was taken into custody Monday in Fulton. Maj. Roger Rice said officers had to fight with Cochran to arrest him but that nobody was injured in the scuffle.

He was taken to the Callaway County Jail and was being held on a $15,000 cash-only bond.

OTTAWA, Kan. (AP) — A therapist says an eastern Kansas man convicted of four 2013 killings once wrote that he wanted to die in a suitcase, but that he couldn’t remember penning that when she questioned him in jail.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Robin Burgess recounted her interviews with Kyle Flack while testifying Tuesday during the penalty phase of Flack’s Franklin County trial.

Flack last week was convicted of the slayings of Kaylie Bailey, her toddler daughter, Bailey’s boyfriend and his roommate at a rural Ottawa farmhouse.

The toddler’s body was found in a suitcase in a creek.

Jurors eventually will decide whether to recommend the death penalty or life in prison for Flack.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has until April 8 to act on a school funding plan approved by legislators in hopes of satisfying a recent state Supreme Court order.

The Republican-dominated Legislature delivered the bill to the GOP governor’s office Tuesday. The state constitution gives Brownback 10 days to review the measure.

Lawmakers approved the bill last week to give the Supreme Court adequate time to review it.

The high court ruled last month that the state isn’t giving poor districts their fair share of more than $4 billion in annual state aid. The justices said lawmakers had until June 30 to fix the problems and threatened to shut down schools statewide.

The plan redistributes $83 million in aid for the 2016-17 but prevents any school district from losing money.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts is standing by a new state license plate that was widely mocked as boring and sexually suggestive.

Ricketts said Tuesday that the plate incorporates “very positive imagery” of the state’s agricultural heritage and fulfills its purpose as a form of identification for law enforcement.

The plate features the iconic “Sower” statue that tops the state Capitol in Lincoln. Since it was unveiled last week, social media commenters have called it uninspired. Some have argued that the image of the Sower holding a grain satchel in front of his pelvis looks inappropriate.

Comedian Chris Hardwick was among several television comics who made fun of the plate on the Comedy Central show @midnight.

Ricketts says he knew license plate redesigns are controversial, but he did not expect the image to make national comedy news.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man is charged with robbing a woman at gunpoint minutes after bonding her out of jail.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that 22-year-old Robert Hyink, of Ballwin, was charged Friday with first-degree robbery and armed criminal action. His attorney didn’t immediately return a phone message with The Associated Press.

The probable statement says Hyink demanded the woman pay back the bond money and another $500 after she was released from the Greene County Jail, where she was taken after a traffic warrant arrest.

The statement says that Hyink pointed a handgun at the woman after she said he would have to wait. The statement says Hyink then took her purse and keys as “collateral.” Hyink told police he didn’t steal from the woman or threaten her at gunpoint.

LOUISVILLE, Neb. (AP) — The pilot of a single-passenger airplane that crashed in eastern Nebraska has been taken to a hospital for his injuries.

Officials with the Cass County Sheriff’s Department say authorities received a report of an airplane with engine trouble Sunday night. The plane later crashed in a field south of Louisville.

The pilot, 44-year-old Eric Stadjuhar, was flying the plane out of the Millard Airport in Omaha. He was trapped inside the airplane after the crash and had to be cut free.

A helicopter transported Stadjuhar to the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Hospital officials said Stadjuhar was in fair condition Monday.

The crash is under investigation.