A “reckless” Texas father who shot his daughter dead during her visit from the UK was a “teaser” who showed her his gun to rile her during a politically-charged argument about firearms, a British coroner has ruled.
“Functioning alcoholic” Kris Harrison was not trained to use his Glock 9mm pistol, which he claimed “just went off,” killing his daughter Lucy, 23, at his home in Prosper, Texas, BBC News reported.
Lucy, who lived with her mom in Warrington, England, was preparing to fly home from the US on Jan. 10, 2025, when her fiberoptics company executive father shot and killed her.
The dad and daughter had argued about guns on the day of Lucy’s death, Harrison claimed in a statement read in court on his behalf, after he chose not to attend the two-day hearing.
Harrison said Lucy asked to see the gun, which he claimed he kept locked in his bedside cabinet.
“As I lifted the gun to show her, I suddenly heard a loud bang. I did not understand what had happened. Lucy immediately fell,” Harrison said at Cheshire Coroner’s Court, northwest England.
But the coroner did not accept that Lucy would have asked to see the gun, given she disliked the weapons and considered them a danger to the family.
The fact that Lucy was shot through the chest from across the bedroom showed that the testimony from Harrison, described as a “functioning alcoholic,” was false, senior coroner Jacqueline Devonish said on Tuesday.
“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,” the senior coroner added.
Harrison suffered an “alcoholic seizure” in 2023, leaving him in an induced coma, the inquest was told.
He had gulped down a 17-ounce carton of white wine on the morning of Jan. 10, 2025, but did not believe he was drunk when he shot his daughter shortly before 3 p.m. that day.
Lucy’s death was ruled accidental by a Texas grand jury last June, a decision her mom, Jane Coates, described as “baffling” and “beyond comprehension” at the time.
Speaking after Wednesday’s verdict in the UK, Coates said she believed her daughter would be safe during her time in the US.
“I never imagined she would be shot and killed in the US, and a place where she should have been safe,” Coates said outside court.
She described the past 12 months as an “unrelenting year of deep shock, grief and fight.”
Harrison had no prior criminal record and owned his firearm legally without a license for self-defense at home,” the coroner was told.
“Texas gun laws did not keep Lucy safe from harm,” Coates added.
The Prosper Police Department did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
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