First Place, News Picture Story - Amy E. Voigt / The (Toledo) Blade
First Place, News Picture Story - Amy E. Voigt / The (Toledo) BladeElaina Steinfurth, the18-month-old daughter of Angela Steinfurth and Terry Steinfurth Jr. was reported missing to the Toledo Police Department on June 2, 2013. Authorities searched homes, vacant buildings and the Maumee River near downtown for any sign of Elaina while volunteers looked through neighborhoods and parks. The remains were found in a box in a garage three months after she was reported missing. The grand jury indicted Angela Steinfurth and her boyfriend Steven King, II, with murder. King pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse and obstructing justice. He was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 25 years. Angela Steinfurth, 25, was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 18 years by Judge Gary Cook after she entered Alford pleas to charges of murder and obstructing justice.Terry Steinfurth Sr., grandfather of baby Elaina, right, sits on the porch of a home at Leonard and Federal streets in East Toledo while Eric Estep, left, who is holding Emma Okane, 2, pays his respects on September 10, 2013. Toledo Police said that DNA tests confirmed that human remains found in an East Toledo home last week were of missing toddler Elaina Steinfurth.
First Place, News Picture Story - Amy E. Voigt / The (Toledo) Blade Leon Oldham, left, gives directions to volunteers, including Terry Steinfurth Jr., center right in baseball cap, the father of missing toddler Elaina Steinfurth, while on a search on June 13, 2013.
First Place, News Picture Story - Amy E. Voigt / The (Toledo) BladeAuthorities search the Maumee River for Elaina Steinfurth, 1, who went missing on Sunday.
First Place, News Picture Story - Amy E. Voigt / The (Toledo) BladeAngela Steinfurth, mother of missing toddler, waits while members of The Toledo Police Dept. near the Maumee River where authorities are searching for Elaina Steinfurth, 1, who went missing on Sunday.
First Place, News Picture Story - Amy E. Voigt / The (Toledo) BladeHand-written signs hang on the side of a home near Federal and Leonard streets in honor of missing toddler Elaina Steinfurth on June 5, 2013.
First Place, News Picture Story - Amy E. Voigt / The (Toledo) BladeTerry Steinfurth Jr., front, father of missing toddler Elaina Steinfurth, leads volunteers in a neighborhood for her on June 13, 2013.
First Place, News Picture Story - Amy E. Voigt / The (Toledo) BladeTerry Steinfurth Jr., front, father of missing toddler Elaina Steinfurth, searches for her with volunteers on June 13, 2013.
First Place, News Picture Story - Amy E. Voigt / The (Toledo) BladeStephen King is walked through the safety building after being arrested in connection to the missing toddler Elaina Steinfurth on July 20, 2013.
First Place, News Picture Story - Amy E. Voigt / The (Toledo) BladeTerry Steinfurth Sr., hugs following the sentencing of Angela Steinfurth in Lucas County Common Please Court in Toledo, Tuesday, December 3, 2013. Steinfurth, who was charged with murder in the death of her daughter Elaina, entered an Alford plea. Terry is Elaina's grandfather. The Blade/Amy E. Voigt
First Place, News Picture Story - Amy E. Voigt / The (Toledo) BladeAngela Steinfurth cries as she arrives for her hearing in Lucas County Common Please Court in Toledo, Tuesday, December 3, 2013. Steinfurth, who was charged with murder in the death of her daughter Elaina, entered an Alford plea. The Blade/Amy E. Voigt
Second Place, News Picture Story - Marving Fong / The Plain Dealer
Second Place, News Picture Story - Marvin Fong / The Plain DealerTEACHERS STRIKE STORY: Strongsville teachers went on strike in early March over benefits, raises, and other issues. They were on the picket line for over eight weeks. Tensions were high between the school board and striking teachers as substitutes were hired and negotiations were deadlocked. Schools continued to operate as students witnessed their instructors picketing in front of their buildings and the community became divided. The labor dispute was finally resolved in April after when 385 union members approved a new contract and leaders called for healing and restoration.School buses arrive Monday for the start of another day of classes at Center Middle School in Strongsville, but this bus carried a message to the striking teachers written on the bus window: "Come back." Monday marked two weeks since the beginning of the Strongsville teachers strike. School administrators and teachers left a negotiation session Sunday, led by a federal mediator, with nothing resolved. Teachers have been on strike since March 4 in the 6,200-student school district.
Second Place, News Picture Story - Marvin Fong / The Plain DealerStriking teachers and supporters continue to make their presence known as school buses drive past the Strongsville city schools administration building. Despite a series of negotiation sessions, there was no deal to end the labor dispute.
Second Place, News Picture Story - Marvin Fong / The Plain DealerParent Amy Noel wipes her tears as she visits with striking teachers outside Kinsner elementary school in Strongsville. Noel has a second-grade son, Jacob, 7, who attends the school. She is accompanied with her twin daughters Makenna, left, and Maisen Lucas, right, 3.
Second Place, News Picture Story - Marvin Fong / The Plain DealerStrongsville Education Association president Tracy Linscott is stopped by a police officer as she walks to the schools administration building. Linscott was allowed to deliver a message to superintendent John Krupinski, to call for binding interest arbitration for the school strike in its fifth week.
Second Place, News Picture Story - Marvin Fong / The Plain DealerStudents arrive for classes at Strongsville High School in late April. Students will have their regular instructors back in the classroom for the first time since the teachers strike ended.
Second Place, News Picture Story - Marvin Fong / The Plain DealerEnglish teacher Heather Keirn-Swanson moves dictionaries inside her Strongsville High School classroom with the help of one of her students Simrit Grewal, 18, senior, in late April. The Strongsville teachers strike was settled over weekend negotiations, and instructors were allowed back into their schools Monday afternoon. Swanson was greeted with symbols and words of appreciation on the back chalkboard.
Second Place, News Picture Story - Marvin Fong / The Plain DealerZoe Legato, 17, junior, facing center, embraces her English teacher Heather Keirn-Swanson, at Strongsville high school. The teachers strike was settled over the past weekend and instructors were allowed back into their schools Monday afternoon.
Second Place, News Picture Story - Marvin Fong / The Plain DealerHistory teacher Jess Attilli greets student Aboo Abuhamdeh, a junior, before the start of classes at Strongsville High School in late April. Hugs and smiles filled the school on the first day that regular teachers were back in class since their strike started in March.
Third Place, News Picture Story - Lisa DeJong / The Plain Dealer
Third Place, News Picture Story - Lisa DeJong / The Plain DealerReinvestigating Rape (Synopsis): They stalked Cleveland’s East Side 20 years ago, ambushed women or girls as they walked along city streets, dragged them into the backyards of blighted houses, into wooded areas and garbage-strewn lots, and raped them. The serial rapists were never caught. But they left behind their DNA. Collected from each victim at local hospitals as part of a “rape kit”, the DNA remained untested alongside hundreds of others that would wait nearly two decades to tell their secrets. The Cleveland Police Department's dismissive approach was to shelve and forget thousands of rape kits that contained DNA evidence collected from survivors. The callous indifference and ineptitude of the Cleveland Police Department enabled a rape culture to flourish. Cuyahoga County prosecutors and investigators are now revisiting decades-old unsolved rape cases, using DNA evidence to connect serial rapes, tracking down victims and sending cases to grand juries for indictment -- often racing against a 20-year statute of limitations. Now, after forensic testing, the kits are yielding results, linking cases to each other and to DNA profiles in databases. Each caption reveals the name of the rapist, each now indicted on the rape that happened near where the image was made. One attacker surprisingly confessed to two murders of long-missing women. The serial rapists walked free for two decades. Until now. More than 75 have been indicted in Cuyahoga County, with more than 500 cases being reopened. CAPTION for this FIRST IMAGE: More than two decades after Cynthia Espey told police she was raped by serial rapist Michael Bass at knifepoint in this apartment building, her nightmare has ended. Police never tested her rape kit. The case was reopened this year after DNA evidence revealed that Bass had lied to police in a 1993 statement. Prosecutors indicted the case just TWO days before the 20-year statute of limitations on the rape case ran out.
Third Place, News Picture Story - Lisa DeJong / The Plain DealerSerial rapist Michael Irby, 52, assaulted a woman in an abandoned building here at E. 57th and Euclid Avenue in 1993. Recent DNA testing has linked Irby to at least three more rapes in the 1990s. Irby is already serving a prison sentence after being convicted of raping 11 other women in 1993 and 1994. The rapes mainly occurred on the East Side and targeted women suffering from drug addiction and engaging in prostitution. A prosecutor at the time called Irby "a cunning predator" and said each of the rapes he committed was violent, depraved and brutal. Irby’s pattern included dehumanizing acts, such as raping his victims with objects or forcing them to drink his urine.Police said they believed Irby was linked to at least 18 rapes, making him one of the most prolific rapists in Cleveland's history. Attorney General Mike DeWine issued an open call for sexual assault evidence kits after stories revealed that thousands of untested kits were in storage at police departments across Ohio. Now, after forensic testing, the kits are yielding results, linking cases to each other and to DNA profiles in databases. Prosecutors and detectives are revisiting the evidence, tracking down victims, using DNA to connect serial rapes and sending cases to the grand jury for indictment – all while racing against a 20-year statute of limitations.
Third Place, News Picture Story - Lisa DeJong / The Plain DealerRapist Charles Steele, 61, approached women on the street, sometimes tried to strike up conversation, then dragged them to secluded areas and raped them such as in this wooded area near the busy corner of St. Clair Avenue and Lakeview Street. For 20 years, the crimes remained unsolved. Evidence collected from the bodies of each victim in 1993 and 1994 remained ignored and in storage until Cleveland police began to ship the first of thousands of untested rape kits to a state lab. Prosecutors say DNA in four of those rape kits led them to Charles Steele, a convicted rapist serving a lengthy prison term for the 1994 rapes of two Cincinnati-area women. Steele had the distinction last year of being the first man indicted in Cuyahoga County -- and in the state -- based on testing of the idled rape kits.The Cleveland rape victims, however, lived two decades unaware that the man who might have been responsible for their attacks had been locked away. One left the state and changed her name out of fear, prosecutors said. Steele, indicted in March, was just sentenced Feb. 21, 2014, to 65 more years in prison for the four rapes.
Third Place, News Picture Story - Lisa DeJong / The Plain DealerNot only has Elias Acevedo's DNA been linked to other rapes including three of his daughters, he also surprisingly confessed to two long-unsolved murder cases from 1994 and 1995. Serial rapist Elias Acevedo told authorities that they he and Pamela Pemberton were drinking with friends and later walked to Clark Field here next to the steel mills in the Tremont neighborhood. When Pemberton refused to have sex with him, he raped and strangled her, leaving her body in a wooded area where it was later discovered by neighborhood boys. He also lead police to a manhole, where he dumped the body of Christina Adkins after raping and killing her. Her remains were still there, 18 years later. He was recently convicted and sentenced to 445 years in prison.
Third Place, News Picture Story - Lisa DeJong / The Plain DealerThe victim reported that she was walking along East 70th Street at Lawnview when two unknown men ordered her into a car at gunpoint. Both men raped her. One of the men is deceased. George Woods, 37, has recently been indicted for this rape in 1993, with only days remaining on the 20-year statue of limitations. Attorney General Mike DeWine issued an open call for sexual assault evidence kits after stories revealed that thousands of untested kits were in storage at police departments across Ohio. Now, after forensic testing, the kits are yielding results, linking cases to each other and to DNA profiles in databases. Prosecutors and detectives are revisiting the evidence, tracking down victims, using DNA to connect serial rapes and sending cases to the grand jury for indictment – all while racing against a 20-year statute of limitations.
Third Place, News Picture Story - Lisa DeJong / The Plain DealerIn July 1993, Jennifer Moore, 12, was walking her puppy when three men abducted and raped her on the pavement behind this school. She was then kidnapped and taken to a house where she was beaten and repeatedly gang raped for three days. Cleveland police did little to investigate the attack 20 years ago. A two-page police report states that Moore was a reported runaway, who said she had been raped by three men behind a school. It makes no mention of her three days in captivity or her parents’ alarm at seeing her puppy mysteriously return home without their daughter. The evidence collected from her at the hospital wasn't tested for nearly 20 years. Until this year. Moore speaks of searing guilt because she knows other women were raped after she made her reports, then redirects her ire at Cleveland police, for seemingly doing nothing to find the men who destroyed her teenage years. The seven men were all due in court to face charges of kidnapping, rape and complicity to rape. Each of them has already been convicted of felonies in the past. At least two have been convicted of sex crimes. Only one, Gene Turner, showed up. He pleaded not guilty and was given a $100,000 bond. Two of the other men are already in prison. The others have warrants out for their arrest. Carolyn Watts Allen, former Cleveland safety director, who oversaw the city's police department from 1990-93, publicly apologized to Moore in a letter. Allen wrote that she extends her "deepest apology for the trauma you experienced in 1993 both at the hands of your rapist and the hands of the Cleveland Police Department. No one and especially no child should have to endure the pain and abuse you endured by such criminals or from the law enforcement system that was supposed to support you," she wrote.
Third Place, News Picture Story - Lisa DeJong / The Plain DealerA 12-year-old girl was walking to school when a man came up behind her and told her he had a knife. Delbert Buckwald led her to a wooded area by the overpass near Interstate 90 and Scranton Street and raped her as cars buzzed by. The 48-year-old sex offender pleaded guilty to three West Side rapes that were reported in 1993 and 1994. Buckwald is sentenced to at least 30 years in prison. He is one of a growing number of serial rapists being identified through rape kit testing.
Third Place, News Picture Story - Lisa DeJong / The Plain DealerThis is yet another location that Michael Irby, 52, raped a woman two decades ago near Woodhill and Parkview. He has been indicted again recently after DNA from previously untested rape kits linked him to two additional rapes in 1993 and 1994. Police they believed Irby was linked to at least 18 rapes, making him one of the most prolific serial rapist in Cleveland's history. The rapes mainly occurred on the East Side and targeted women suffering from drug addiction and engaging in prostitution. A prosecutor at the time called Irby "a cunning predator" and said each of the rapes he committed was violent, depraved and brutal. Irby’s pattern included dehumanizing acts, such as raping his victims with objects or forcing them to drink his urine.
Third Place, News Picture Story - Lisa DeJong / The Plain DealerA 18-year-old woman told police in 1993 that she was walking down the street in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood on Union Street when a man walked up and asked her if she had “just had a fight with her boyfriend.” She replied, “No but I just want to be alone.” Charles Steele, now 61, then walked in front of the woman for a while and then turned to her, reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a gun. He then dragged her into this abandoned garage. The woman tried to run but the man pulled her back in, held her at gunpoint, and raped her. He told her to count to 100 before she got up and if she tried to leave, he would kill her. He raped four women. For 20 years, the crimes remained unsolved. Evidence collected from the bodies of each victim in 1993 and 1994 remained ignored and in storage until Cleveland police began to ship the first of thousands of untested rape kits to a state lab. Prosecutors say DNA in four of those rape kits led them to Charles Steele, a convicted rapist serving a lengthy prison term for the 1994 rapes of two Cincinnati-area women. Steele had the distinction last year of being the first man indicted in Cuyahoga County -- and in the state -- based on testing of the idled rape kits.The Cleveland rape victims, however, lived two decades unaware that the man who might have been responsible for their attacks had been locked away. One left the state and changed her name out of fear, prosecutors said. Steele, indicted in March, was just sentenced on Feb. 21, 2014 to 65 more years in prison for the four rapes.
Third Place, News Picture Story - Lisa DeJong / The Plain Dealer"You don't know who you are dealing with," said serial rapist "John Doe #2" after he kidnapped a 35-year-old woman on E. 131st Street and Harvard Avenue. He then told her to get out of the car and run. He fired three shots at her as she ran. County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty decided to charge "John Does" based on the DNA profiles of unidentified suspects. "John Doe #2" is charged with at least seven counts of rape. Attorney General Mike DeWine issued an open call for sexual assault evidence kits after stories revealed that thousands of untested kits were in storage at police departments across Ohio. Now, after forensic testing, the kits are yielding results, linking cases to each other and to DNA profiles in databases. Prosecutors and detectives are revisiting the evidence, tracking down victims, using DNA to connect serial rapes and sending cases to the grand jury for indictment – all while racing against a 20-year statute of limitations.
Third Place, News Picture Story - Lisa DeJong / The Plain Dealer“If you turn and look at me, I’ll kill you," he threatened, pressing a large knife to her throat and commanding her to undress. One of the youngest rape victims was a 6th grader, taking a shortcut to Mary Martin School through an overgrown field, when she was accosted by the man with paint splattered pants here at E. 82nd Street and Hough Avenue. He laid her face down on the ground and raped her. Afterward, he apologized for what he had done, and ordered her to count to 100 while he fled on foot. The attacker, who authorities now have dubbed John Doe #3, was never caught. John Doe #3 could prove to be among the most prolific serial rapists in the city’s history. Six fell prey to him in less than a year, four between the ages of 12 and 16.
Third Place, News Picture Story - Lisa DeJong / The Plain DealerMany of the rapes occurred on Cleveland's east side where urban blight has steadily destroyed neighborhoods. Darnell Hoffman, now only 33, has just been indicted for a rape at E.102nd Street and Manor Avenue of a 14-year-old girl in 1993. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine issued an open call for sexual assault evidence kits after stories revealed that thousands of untested kits were in storage – sometimes for decades – at police departments across Ohio. Now, after forensic testing, the kits are yielding results, linking cases to each other and to DNA profiles in databases. Prosecutors and detectives are revisiting the evidence, tracking down victims, using DNA to connect serial rapes and sending cases to the grand jury for indictment – all while racing against a 20-year statute of limitations.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Gus Chan / The Plain Dealer
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Gus Chan / The Plain DealerCleveland police have had a sordid past when it comes to investigating missing women in Cleveland. The ledger recording unsolved crimes against women crew at an astonishing rate. Rapists and killers walked among us with impunity. Since the trial and conviction of serial killer Anthony Sowell and the escape of three kidnapped women, these criminals are being pursued with greater urgency.Angelique Gallagher is given a hug as tears stream down her face during a rally for women's safety in East Cleveland Wednesday, July 24, 2013. Hundreds turned out as family members of some of the three women found this past weekend in East Cleveland spoke. Gallagher's niece Shirellda Terry was one of three women found this past weekend believed to have been murdered by Michael Madison.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Gus Chan / The Plain DealerMary Adkins holds a wooden cross she'll take to Riverside Cemetery to put on a memorial for her daughter, Christina. Christina Adkins' body was stuffed in a manhole and her remains went undiscovered for 18 years until her killer, Elias Acevedo, confessed to the crime.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Gus Chan / The Plain DealerA flag is waved by a member of Black on Black Crime during a rally for women's safety in East Cleveland. Hundreds turned out as family members of three women found murdered in East Cleveland spoke.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Gus Chan / The Plain DealerDeputy Police Chief Ed Tomba wipes his eyes as he answers questions from the media after the escape of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight from the home of Ariel Castro. The three were held prisoner inside the home for more than ten years.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Gus Chan / The Plain DealerTonia Adkins, sister, of Christina Adkins, hugs a childhood friend of her murdered sister. Christina Adkins' body was stuffed in a manhole and her remains went undiscovered for 18 years until her killer, Elias Acevedo, confessed to the crime.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Gus Chan / The Plain DealerVolunteers search railroad tracks behind the East Cleveland Civic Center looking for more bodies of missing women. The search continued for bodies after the discovery of three bodies wrapped in plastic bags last weekend.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Gus Chan / The Plain DealerA volunteer makes his way to the second floor of an apartment building looking for more bodies of missing women in East Cleveland. The search continued for bodies after the discovery of three bodies wrapped in plastic bags last weekend.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Gus Chan / The Plain DealerA member of the FBI Evidence Response Team scours a field in search of the body of Christina Adkins. Police were searching the brush near Clark Field after receiving a tip to the missing woman's whereabouts. Adkins has been missing since 1995.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Gus Chan / The Plain DealerA piece of bone said to be a human knee bone is held by a volunteer after being removed from an East Cleveland abandoned apartment building. The search continued for bodies after the discovery of three bodies wrapped in plastic bags last weekend.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Gus Chan / The Plain DealerThe hearse containing the body of Angela Deskins prepares to head for the cemetery. Deskins' body was one of three found last weekend on a tip by Michael Madison, the accused murderer. Deskins was the first of the women to be buried.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Gus Chan / The Plain DealerKimmetta Sheeley, mother of East Cleveland murder victim Shetisha Sheeley , is supported by a daughter during a memorial service. Sheeley was one of three women believed to be murdered in East Cleveland by Michael Madison.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Gus Chan / The Plain DealerCleveland police place two markers on the site where the body of Christina Adkins was found. Adkins' body was stuffed in a manhole and her remains went undiscovered for 18 years until her killer, Elias Acevedo, confessed to the crime.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Coty Giannelli / Kent State University
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Coty Giannelli / Kent State UniversityRevolution: As the Syrian Revolution enters into it’s third year and the death toll rises to around 120,000, the international community has still done little to help stabilize the region. As the war rages on there are thousands of people rebelling in their own way; some fight, others design and build weapons in secret, some work in and run hospitals and others are children just trying to survive. Every person does his or her part in the revolution, no matter how trivial it may seem.Image01 - A Free Syrian Army fighter, who defected from the Syrian Army, looks out of a window trying to spot enemy fighters in neighboring buildings on June 27, 2013. As the fighting in Aleppo intensifies, the front lines disappear and combatants are forced to fight building to building. Watching
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Coty Giannelli / Kent State UniversityA Free Syrian Army brigade commander and one of his soldiers look out of fighting position while they search for regime positions in a nearby village on June 21, 2013. Snipers own the battlefield during the day and make it almost impossible for fighters from either side to launch an attack.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Coty Giannelli / Kent State UniversitySyrian-made grenades made from salvaged water pipes and sealed with yellow wax, lay on the ground next to explosive mixture that they are packed with, in a secret arms factory in northern Syria on June 22, 2013. This factory is able to produce 1000 of these grenades a day.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Coty Giannelli / Kent State UniversityA young worker grinds off the sharp edges from a mortar shell that will be filled, assembled and shipped to the front lines from this location in northern Syria on June 22, 2013. Running out of weapons and with little help from the outside world the Free Syrian Army has set up it's own munitions factories. This young laborer works in an underground factory that produces munitions for one of the most powerful Free Syrian Army brigades in the area, The Ahrar Suriyah. This factory is so secret that most of the fighters have no clue about its existence.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Coty Giannelli / Kent State UniversityUnloaded shotgun shells are placed in the mortars and used to ignite the propellant packs that are wrapped around the base of the mortars before they are fired on June 22, 2013. These mortars are hand assembled in this factory and shipped out to fighters all over northern Syria.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Coty Giannelli / Kent State UniversityA Syrian man and his neighbors work to clean up what is left of his house after government jets dropped bombs on an area populated with civilians in Northern Syria on June 20, 2013. People were reportedly killed and many injured, including this man’s son.cleanup
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Coty Giannelli / Kent State UniversityA Syrian child sits in the lap of a Free Syrian Army fighter in Northern Syria on June 20, 2013. This child's parents were killed in the fighting and he has been adopted by a local brigade of fighters who not raise him as if he were their son.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Coty Giannelli / Kent State UniversityA makes-shift refinery in northern Syria on June 19, 2013. The Syria government controls all of the refineries in Syria so in order to get fuel, groups of rebels set up their own refineries throughout the country.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Coty Giannelli / Kent State UniversityYoung Free Syrian Army fighters throw grenades into the neighboring building, where regime troops have taken control, in Aleppo on June 27, 2013. As the fighting in Aleppo intensifies, the front lines disappear and combatants are forced to fight building to building.untitled
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Coty Giannelli / Kent State UniversityA Free Syrian Army fighter, formerly an officer in the Syrian Army, takes cover as he prepares to fire a Syrian-made mortar at a regime-held position in northern Syria on June 22, 2013.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Coty Giannelli / Kent State UniversityA Free Syrian Army fighter rests after being treated for a bullet wound in a field hospital somewhere in Syria on June 23, 2013. There are very few hospitals that are operational in Syria and those that are running must remain very secretive, as to not drawn attention from regime air forces. This field hospital was set up and is managed by a mason because many of the medical professionals have fled the country.
Award of Excellence, News Picture Story - Coty Giannelli / Kent State UniversityA group of rebel fighters rest their weapons against a wall as they take time to pray in a small house outside of Aleppo on June 21, 2013. Syria is a volatile country, so chaotic that those involved in the conflict, and some who are not, carry a weapon at all times
