A British woman who was shot and killed by her father while visiting his home in Texas had allegedly argued with him earlier that day about Donald Trump.
Lucy Harrison, 23, of Warrington, England, was shot in the chest at a home in Prosper, Texas, in January 2025. A Collin County grand jury later declined to indict her father, Kris Harrison, and no criminal charges were filed, the BBC reported.
During an inquest in England on Wednesday, Feb. 11, however, a U.K. coroner ruled that Harrison died as a result of unlawful killing on the grounds of gross negligence manslaughter, according to the BBC.
Police said Harrison sustained a single gunshot wound to the chest, and the medical examiner ruled her death a homicide. Prosper police said they conducted an investigation and forwarded their findings to the Collin County District Attorney’s Office.
At the inquest, Harrison’s boyfriend, Sam Littler, testified that he and Harrison had traveled to Texas for a holiday and were preparing to return to the U.K. on the day she died, the BBC reported.
Littler said Harrison and her father had a “big” argument earlier that morning about Trump, who was preparing to be inaugurated for a second term as U.S. president. He also said Harrison often became upset when her father spoke about owning a gun.
During the argument, Littler testified, Harrison asked her father how he would feel if she were the victim of sexual assault. He said her father responded that he had two other daughters who lived with him and that it would not upset him that much. Littler said Harrison became distressed and ran upstairs.
Later that day, about half an hour before the couple was due to leave for the airport, Littler testified that Harrison was in the kitchen when her father took her by the hand and led her into his ground-floor bedroom. About 15 seconds later, Littler said he heard a loud bang, then heard Harrison’s father screaming for his wife.
When Littler ran into the room, he said, Harrison was lying on the floor near the entrance to the bathroom.
In her conclusion, Cheshire Coroner Jacqueline Devonish said that shooting Harrison “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,” according to the BBC.
“I find these actions to be reckless,” she wrote.
The BBC reported that Harrison’s father did not attend the inquest but provided a statement that was read in court.
In the statement, he said he and his daughter had been watching a news segment on gun crime when he told her he owned a gun and asked if she wanted to see it. He said they went into the bedroom so he could show her a handgun he kept in a bedside cabinet.
He said he did not recall whether his finger was on the trigger when he removed the gun and said he did not understand what had happened when it discharged, according to the BBC.
The BBC also reported that Harrison’s father acknowledged he had struggled with alcohol addiction in the past and said he relapsed on the day of the shooting, drinking about 500 milliliters of white wine earlier in the day. A responding police officer testified that she smelled alcohol on his breath, the outlet reported.
Separately, ITV reported that CCTV footage shown at the inquest indicated Harrison’s father purchased two cartons of Chardonnay from a convenience store earlier that afternoon.
