The mother of a British graduate shot dead by her own father while visiting his Texas home today criticised the US police investigation into her tragic death, saying her daughter ‘deserved better’.
‘Functioning alcoholic’ Kris Harrison claimed his fashion buyer daughter Lucy, 23, who was passionately anti-guns, had asked to see his Glock 9mm pistol, which he had not been trained to use.
The semi-automatic weapon then ‘just went off’ as he removed it from its case and struck her in the chest, he told officers at the scene.
Police in the US state failed to test him for alcohol despite smelling drink on his breath, and her death was ruled accidental.
At the time, her mother Jane Coates described the decision as ‘baffling’ and ‘beyond comprehension’.
But today a coroner in her home town of Warrington, Cheshire concluded Lucy had been unlawfully killed on the last day of her post-Christmas trip with her boyfriend.
Saying ‘reckless’ Mr Harrison – who had drunk at least 500ml of wine that day – was a ‘teaser’, she ruled he had deliberately aimed it at his daughter’s chest, unaware it was loaded.
Speaking afterwards, flanked by her daughter’s ‘soulmate’ Sam Littler, her mother said: ‘Texas gun laws did not keep Lucy safe from harm.’
Lucy Harrison, 23, in a cherished image shared by her family which they framed and brought to court where it was on display during her inquest – it was taken at a Coldplay concert at the Etihad stadium in Manchester in 2023 which she attended with her mother
Lucy Harrison’s mother Jane Coates (centre) flanked by her boyfriend Sam Littler and best friend Ella Gowing following her inquest at Cheshire Coroner’s Court on Wednesday
And she said it was their ‘strongly held view that the US investigation led by the Prosper Police Department lacked the rigour and scrutiny you’d expect if this had happened in the UK.’
‘Lucy deserved better,’ she added.
Ms Harrison was shot as she prepared to fly home on January 10 last year.
On Tuesday, an inquest in Warrington heard her British father – an executive at a fibre optics company who had settled in Texas – had been drinking on the morning of the tragedy and that the pair had argued about Donald Trump.
Emergency services rushed to the house in Prosper, near Dallas, after her boyfriend dialled 911.
But she had been shot through the heart and could not be saved.
Her father, who did not attend the hearing, claimed his daughter – described by a friend as ‘categorically anti-gun’ – had asked to see his pistol, which he had not been trained to use.
Police bodycam footage showed Mr Harrison telling officers afterwards that the gun ‘just went off’.
At an inquest into Lucy Harrison’s death, it emerged for the first time that she was fatally shot by her father Kris (pictured together)
A manslaughter investigation was launched in February after Lucy Harrison (pictured), 23, from Warrington, Cheshire, was killed at the house in Prosper, Texas, on January 10
She was visiting her father, Kris Harrison, who lives in Texas (Pictured: Kris Harrison’s home)
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BREAKING NEWS British graduate, 23, was shot dead by her father in his Texas home after Trump row, inquest hears
But rejecting his account, senior coroner Jacqueline Devonish said: ‘To shoot her 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.’
She added: ‘I accept he was a teaser, and on the balance of probabilities this is what he was doing.
‘I accept he did not realise the gun was loaded.’
The coroner said Mr Harrison had been ‘reckless’ to have bought a pistol without undergoing training on the safe use of firearms.
‘His actions have killed his own daughter and in the cold light of day it is hoped that he now recognises the risk he posed to her life in circumstances in which he had no experience of guns, had undertaken no training and had never fired a gun.’
Ms Devonish said he had failed to tell her boyfriend – who was on the phone to 911 – that he had shot Ms Harrison, despite knowing ‘full well he had shot his own daughter, pointing a gun at chest height and pulling the trigger’.
She also highlighted how police in Texas failed to test Mr Harrison for alcohol despite suspecting he had been drinking after smelling it on his breath.
Relatives of Ms Harrison wept as the coroner recorded her conclusion.
Lucy (pictured) had been due to fly back to Manchester on the day she was shot after spending New Year in the States
Lucy Harrison (pictured) was described by her mother as ‘sensitive, energetic, intelligent, funny and a really great human being’
Jane Coates (centre) reading a statement after her daughter’s inquest as Lucy’s boyfriend, Sam Littler, puts an arm around her
Speaking afterwards, flanked by Lucy’s ‘soulmate’ Mr Littler, her mother thanked the coroner for giving her daughter’s ‘voice back, after what has been an unrelenting year of deep shock, grief and fight’.
Praising her for ‘exploring all of the evidence fairly, as fully as she could, and fearlessly for Lucy’, Ms Coates, a deputy manager at a primary school, told how for 23 years she had dedicated herself to the safety of her only child.
‘I brought Lucy up in a single parent family and along each step of the way, I did what parents do to keep their children safe: watching her play with friends when she was little, staying awake until she came home from a night out, and feeling grateful every time her return flight landed safely after visiting her Dad and family.
‘I never imagined she would be shot and killed in the US, in a place where she should have been safe.
‘We respectfully accept that our two cultures are different in regards to firearms, yet we feel Texas gun laws did not keep Lucy safe from harm.’
Describing Texas gun laws were ‘so different to England’, Ms Harrison said firearms caused ‘too many deaths in the USA’.
Thanking first responders for their efforts to save her daughter’s life, she added: ‘Finally, I want to thank Sam, for loving Lucy unconditionally – I take great comfort in knowing that in her short adult life, she experienced the richness of true love with her soul mate.’
Saying there was ‘much to be learnt from Lucy’s needless and entirely avoidable death’, her mother said she would not let ‘bitterness and hatred’ consume her.
‘Lucy had so much more of life to live, to love, to give.
‘She had a huge sense of right and wrong, and was not afraid to speak out if she saw any type of injustice.
‘Those who really know Lucy’s heart can hear her, loud and clear, and know exactly what she would want us to do moving forward.
‘Make change. Do better. Be better.’
Ms Harrison regularly visited her father – who had married and started a new family in the US – after her parents split when she was a young child, the inquest heard on Tuesday.
But she had expressed concern about ‘volatility’ in the house, a friend said, adding that the presence of a gun created an ‘unpredictable environment’.
Lucy was found dead at the home of her father Kris (pictured) who works for a fibre optics firm in the States
Ms Harrison was ‘categorically anti-gun’ and felt it was unsafe for her father to have a firearm in the house with his young daughters around, the inquest heard.
Giving evidence, her boyfriend said she had argued with her father about Donald Trump on the morning of her death.
He ‘always felt on edge’ at the house, he added, saying: ‘There was a lot of very opinionated people in the house.’
As they prepared to set off for the airport, he said Mr Harrison took his daughter by the hand in a ‘mysterious’ manner without saying anything.
He then guided her into the downstairs bedroom where the gun was kept in a locked case.
Within 15 seconds, Mr Littler heard a ‘loud bang’ from the bedroom and found his girlfriend collapsed on the floor.
He insisted she would not have been interested in seeing her father’s gun.
In his own witness statement read to the court, Mr Harrison – who did not attend the inquest – claimed Lucy daughter agreed to let him show her the weapon after they had watched a television news report about gun crime.
He said he bought the handgun as a ‘home defence’ weapon, meaning he did not need a licence as long as he did not take it out in public.
He had ‘no prior experience and no formal training’ around firearms, he said.
Lucy’s mother, Jane Coates, pictured arriving at the inquest on Tuesday
Giving evidence at the inquest, Lucy Harrison’s boyfriend Sam Littler (pictured, arriving at court) said she had argued with her father about Donald Trump on the morning of her death
Mr Harrison suffered an ‘alcoholic seizure’ in 2023 which left him in an induced coma, the inquest was told.
He had drunk a 500ml carton of white wine that morning, but did not believe he was impaired by alcohol when his daughter was shot shortly before 3pm.
‘As I lifted the gun to show her, I suddenly heard a loud bang,’ he said in his statement.
‘Lucy immediately fell to the ground.’
Police bodycam footage showed Mr Harrison saying the gun ‘just went off’.
‘We were getting ready to go to the airport and we were talking about guns,’ he tells the officer as a shocked-looking Mr Littler stands with his hands behind the back of his neck.
‘It was in the bedside cabinet in a locked box. I took it out to look and it just went off.’
In a statement read to the hearing, Officer Luciano Escalera, who was scrambled to the house, said he smelt ‘metabolised alcohol’ on Mr Harrison’s breath at which he initially lied, saying he hadn’t drunk alcohol since the day before.
But he then confessed to having drunk a ‘small’ carton of wine earlier in the day.
A ‘grand jury’ of 12 Texas residents later heard the evidence in private before deciding no-one should be prosecuted over Ms Harrison’s death.
Her father hired lawyers who on Tuesday made an unsuccessful attempt to have the coroner removed from the case on the grounds she was ‘biased’ against him.
But she rejected the application and the inquest at Cheshire Coroner’s Court went ahead.
After Tuesday’s hearing his lawyers released a statement from Mr Harrison.
In his first public comments since the tragedy, he paid tribute to Lucy as ‘the light of my life’ and said he was ‘deeply sorry’ for the pain he had caused her grieving family.
‘From the moment she was born, to watching her grow into the remarkable young woman she became — from her first steps to her graduation, where I cried with pride — was the greatest privilege of my life,’ he said.
‘Lucy adored her younger sisters, and our home was never truly complete unless she was in it — laughing, cuddling, and filling every room with joy.
‘During her last visit, she wrote a letter saying that Texas was her home and that she felt lucky to be part of “the best family in the whole wide world”.
‘That letter is now one of our most treasured possessions.
‘Losing Lucy has shattered all of us. I lost my best friend.
‘My girls lost their big sister and hero, and her stepmum lost her bonus daughter who taught her how to be a mum.
He said: ‘I fully accept the consequences of my actions, and there isn’t a day I don’t feel the weight of that loss — a weight I will carry for the rest of my life, and I know that nothing I say can ease the heartbreak this tragedy has caused.
‘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.’
After the hearing, Victoria Cox from HCC Solicitors, who assisted Lucy’s mother, said: ‘Losing a child in such horrific circumstances is tough enough, but my client has had to deal with it happening in a different country and not knowing what was happening from one day to the next.
‘Part of the problem at an inquest, as the family encountered, is that a witness who lives abroad cannot be compelled to give a statement or be questioned by the Coroner on what happened if they choose not to be.
‘Jane was really hoping she’d get the answers she longed for this week and she’s been denied that, but there are more facts out there now which is something.
‘Sadly she and all who loved Lucy now have to live with the knowledge that her death could’ve been avoided – something they will never recover from.’
