In a report released by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Atty. Gen. Kent Frizzell said, “We can not demonstrate that [Harry Rice] was killed by a police bullet. We can not demonstrate he was not killed by a police bullet.” Rice, an 18-year-old from Leawood, had been fatally shot during a disturbance near 13th and Oread on July 20 [see OHT for July 21, 1970]. In spite of the report’s lack of conclusive evidence, Frizzell and KBI Director Harold Nye did say that four police weapons had been fired at the time Rice died, and that they did not have any evidence that any other weapons had been fired. A coroner’s inquest into Rice’s death was scheduled for September 1.

After a new federal law lowering the voting age to 18 had been approved in June by Congress, President Nixon had signed the bill but had instructed Atty. Gen. John Mitchell to test its legality in court. Saying that Kansas Gov. Robert Docking lacked the legal authority to order registration of 18-year-olds, Atty. Gen. Frizzell was considering an injunction from the Kansas Supreme Court blocking the registration.