A 23-year-old British woman who was shot dead by her father while visiting him at his home in the US was unlawfully killed, an inquest has concluded.
Lucy Harrison, a fashion buyer from Warrington, Cheshire, was staying with her father, Kris Harrison, and his family at their home in Prosper, Texas, in January last year.
Mr Harrison, described to the court as a functioning alcoholic, claimed the gun had gone off accidentally in the incident, shortly before 3pm.
Concluding the inquest into Ms Harrison’s death on Wednesday, senior coroner Jacqueline Devonish said she found the father’s actions “to be reckless”.
She said that “to shoot [his daughter] through the chest whilst she was standing would have required him to have been pointing the gun at his daughter, without checking for bullets, and pulling the trigger”.
The coroner found Ms Harrison died due to unlawful killing on the grounds of gross negligence manslaughter, adding that the 23-year-old was “young, vibrant and beautiful with her whole life ahead of her and this is a most tragic death”.
Ms Harrison’s boyfriend, Sam Littler, who was on the trip to the US with her, previously told Cheshire Coroner’s Court that she would often become upset with her father when he spoke about his gun ownership.
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He said that Ms Harrison and her father argued about Donald Trump on the morning of 10 January 2025, when the couple were due to fly home.
About half an hour before they were expected to leave for the airport, Mr Harrison took his daughter by the hand and led her from the kitchen to his ground-floor bedroom, where he kept a Glock semi-automatic handgun in his bedside cabinet.
He said he heard a loud bang some 15 seconds later, before Mr Harrison started screaming for his wife, Heather.
Mr Littler said: “I remember running into the room and Lucy was lying on the floor near the entrance to the bathroom and Kris was just screaming, just sort of nonsense.”
Mr Harrison did not attend the two-day inquest hearing, but said in a statement that he had bought the gun to give his family a “sense of security”. As it was for home defence, Texas laws meant he did not need a licence.
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Verdict gives ‘Luce her voice back’, says mum
Speaking outside the court in Warrington, Ms Harrison’s mother Jane Coates said that the outcome “has finally given Luce her voice back, after what has been an unrelenting year of deep shock, grief and fight”.
She said her daughter was “failed” by Texan gun laws and decisions made by the police department in Prosper.
“Although we are satisfied with the coroner’s conclusion,” Ms Coates added, “there is much to be learnt from Lucy’s needless and entirely avoidable death.”
The inquest heard a grand jury in the US determined there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone in connection with Ms Harrison’s death.
It was also told that Mr Harrison had previously been to rehab for alcohol addiction. His representative, Ana Samuel, said the hearing was “more akin to a criminal investigation than a fact-finding inquiry”.
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In a statement issued by his solicitors, Mr Harrison also said “I fully accept the consequences of my actions”, and added: “I cannot undo what happened, but I can honour Lucy by being the best father I can be to her sisters and by carrying her memory forward in everything we do.
“I am deeply sorry for the pain others feel from this tragedy. Lucy’s spirit – her warmth, her humour, her kindness – will live on in all of us who loved her.”
