Sipu Jha
After a man shot his British daughter at his home in Texas after he pointed a gun at her as a prank and pulled the trigger, he will not be facing prison.Lucy Harrison, 23, from Warrington in Cheshire, was killed while on holiday at her father Kris Harrison’s house in Prosper, near Dallas, on 10 January 2025. A coroner has now ruled she was unlawfully killed, reported BBC.She was in a bedroom when his Glock semi-automatic handgun discharged, shooting her through the chest. Evidence at the inquest showed the magazine was not in the gun but a bullet remained in the chamber. The weapon had been stored in a locked box in a bedside cabinet.Senior Cheshire coroner Jacqueline Devonish found that, on the balance of probabilities, Kris Harrison had been teasing his daughter by pointing the gun at her without checking it was unloaded. “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 said. “I accept he was a teaser, and on the balance of probabilities, this is what he was doing. I accept he did not realize the gun was loaded,” she added.Video from a police body-worn camera shown at the inquest captured Kris Harrison explaining what happened. He told an officer, “She said ‘you’ve got a gun?’ I said yes, I got it out and it just went off as she stood there.” In the background, Lucy’s boyfriend Sam Littler, who had travelled with her on the holiday, could be seen holding his head in distress. He had earlier told the hearing she had become upset after she and her father argued about Donald Trump, who was due to be inaugurated as US president later that month.Kris Harrison, who did not attend the hearing, said in a written statement that he and his daughter had been watching a television news item about gun crime when she asked to see the weapon. Littler disputed this, telling the court she disliked guns and would not have asked to see one. In her summary of his evidence, the coroner said, “She would never have asked to see the gun. She would not be laughing and giggling if discussing guns. There was nothing on television at the time regarding guns, contrary to what Kris stated in his statement.”The inquest also heard that Kris Harrison had previously been in rehabilitation for alcohol addiction and later admitted secretly drinking cartons of white wine on the day of the shooting. Littler said Lucy had told him she believed her father had been drinking, although it was not obvious to others, and that she had been worried about guns being kept around her younger siblings.Texas police investigated the shooting as possible manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide, but a grand jury declined to bring charges and the death was ruled an accident in the United States. Devonish recorded a conclusion of unlawful killing in the UK inquest.After the hearing, Lucy’s mother Jane Coates criticised the Prosper Police Department’s handling of the investigation and said: “Today’s outcome has finally given Lucy her voice back after what has been an unrelenting year of deep shock, grief and fight – fight with quiet focus and steely determination to allow Lucy to speak her truth with the only voice she has now.”
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