Moment British father tells police he shot his 23-year-old daughter dead in his Texas home – but insists gun ‘just went off’ as he picked it up

This is the moment a British father who shot and killed his graduating daughter while visiting her Texas home told police the gun “exploded” as he picked it up.

‘Functional alcoholic’ Kris Harrison claimed his fiercely anti-gun fashion buyer daughter Lucy, 23, wanted to see his Glock 9mm pistol, which he was not trained to use.

Police in the US state were unable to test her for alcohol despite smelling alcohol on her breath, and her death on January 10 last year was ruled an accident.

But today the coroner in her home town of Warrington, Cheshire, concluded that Lucy was unlawfully killed on the last day of a post-Christmas trip with her boyfriend.

It was an “affair” that Mr Harrison, who had drunk at least 500ml of wine that day, called “reckless”; The woman decided that she had deliberately aimed the wine at her daughter’s chest, unaware that it was full.

Her mother later criticized Texas police for their botched investigation, which failed to test Mr Harrison for alcohol, and said her daughter ‘deserved better’.

Body-worn footage was released showing police officers speaking to his father minutes after the shooting.

The photo shows Mr Harrison giving the statement, which was rejected by the coroner today, as his daughter’s boyfriend, Sam Littler, waited in shock as he called 911.

Lucy Harrison’s mother Jane Coates (centre) with Lucy’s boyfriend Sam Littler and best friend Ella Gowing after her inquest at Cheshire Coroner’s Court on Wednesday

While the interior of the house in Prosper, near Dallas, was covered in Christmas decorations, the family had previously been playing outside in the snow.

Mr Harrison, wearing a T-shirt, told the officer: ‘He was just about to head to the airport.’

‘Who’s that?’ The officer intervenes.

‘This is our daughter, my daughter.

‘We were getting ready to go to the airport and we were talking about guns and he said, ‘Do you have a gun?’ “Yes” I said.

‘I took it out and it exploded while he was standing there.

‘When I took it out it went out. It must definitely be so…’

The officer then asks if he put the gun on the bed.

‘I immediately went to bed,’ Mr Harrison replies.

When asked where he keeps it, he replies: ‘In the nightstand… in a locked box.

‘We took it out to look at it and just as I picked it up it exploded.’

Mr Harrison insisted the gun had ‘gone off’ in body camera footage taken as police arrived at the home

Today, a coroner in her hometown of Warrington, Cheshire, concluded that Lucy (pictured) was unlawfully killed on the last day of her post-Christmas trip with her boyfriend.

The inquest into Lucy Harrison’s death has revealed for the first time that she was fatally shot by her father Kris (pictured together)

A manslaughter investigation was opened in February after 23-year-old Lucy Harrison (pictured), from Warrington, Cheshire, was killed at home in Prosper, Texas, on January 10.

The inquest on Tuesday heard how Mr Harrison, an executive at a fiber optics company based in Texas, had been drinking and arguing with his daughter about Donald Trump on the morning of the tragedy.

Mr Harrison, who did not attend the hearing, claimed his daughter, whom a friend described as ‘decidedly anti-gun’, wanted to see her gun, which she had not been trained to use.

But rejecting his account, senior coroner Jacqueline Devonish said: ‘To shoot her in the chest as she stood, he should have pointed the gun at his daughter and pulled the trigger without checking for bullets.’

He added: ‘I accept it was a teaser and on the balance of probabilities that’s what he did.

‘I accept that he did not realize the gun was loaded.’

The coroner said it was ‘reckless’ for Mr Harrison to buy a gun without being trained in the safe use of firearms.

‘His actions killed his own daughter and it is hoped that he is now aware of the risk he posed to her life in cold light, where he had no experience with weapons, had no training and had never used a weapon.’

Ms. Devonish said she did not tell her boyfriend, who called 911, that he shot Ms. Harrison, even though he knew full well that he had “shot his own daughter, pointed the gun at her chest and pulled the trigger.”

Lucy (pictured with her father) was due to return to Manchester on the day of the shooting after spending the New Year in America.

‘Functional alcoholic’ Kris Harrison claimed his daughter Lucy, a 23-year-old fashion buyer who is anti-firearms, wanted to see his Glock 9mm pistol, which he was not trained to use

He also emphasized that police in Texas did not test Mr. Harrison for alcohol, even though they suspected he smelled alcohol on his breath.

Ms Harrison’s relatives wept as the coroner recorded her result.

Speaking later, her mother Jane Coates, flanked by her daughter’s ‘soulmate’ Mr Littler, said: ‘Texas gun laws did not protect Lucy from harm.’

And he said they ‘take a strong view that the US investigation carried out by the Prosper Police Department lacked the rigor and scrutiny that you would expect if this had been in the UK’.

“Lucy deserved better,” he added.

Mrs Coates, deputy headteacher of a primary school, added: ‘I never thought he would be shot and killed in the USA, in a place where he should be safe.’

Explaining that Texas gun laws are ‘very different from England’, Ms Harrison said firearms cause ‘too many deaths in the USA’.

Saying there was ‘much to be learned from Lucy’s unnecessary and completely preventable death’, her mother said she would not let ‘bitterness and hatred’ consume her.

‘Lucy had so much more life to live, to love, to give.

‘He had a great sense of right and wrong and was not afraid to speak out when he saw any injustice.

‘Those who truly know Lucy’s heart can hear it loud and clear and know exactly what she wants us to do going forward.’

Ms Harrison regularly visited her father, who married and started a new family in the US after her parents separated when she was young, the inquest heard on Tuesday.

But a friend said he expressed concern about ‘variability’ in the house and that the presence of the gun created an ‘unpredictable environment’.

The inquest heard Ms Harrison thought it was not safe for her father to have a firearm in the house when his young daughters were around.

Her boyfriend, who testified, said he was arguing with his father about Donald Trump the morning of her death.

He added that he ‘always felt tense’ at home and said: ‘There were a lot of stubborn people in the house.’

She said Mr Harrison ‘mysteriously’ grabbed his daughter’s hand without saying anything as they prepared to leave for the airport.

He then took her to the downstairs bedroom, where the gun was hidden in a locked box.

Within 15 seconds Mr Littler heard a ‘loud explosion’ from the bedroom and found his girlfriend collapsed on the floor.

He insisted that he would not be interested in seeing his father’s gun.

Lucy (pictured) was due to return to Manchester on the day of the shooting after spending Christmas in America.

Giving evidence at the inquest, Lucy Harrison’s boyfriend Sam Littler (pictured, arriving in court) said he had been arguing with his father about Donald Trump on the morning of her death.

Mr Harrison, who was not involved in the inquest, claimed in his own witness statement read to the court that his daughter had agreed to let him show her the gun after watching a television news report about gun crime.

He said he bought the gun as a ‘home defense’ gun, meaning he didn’t need a permit as long as he didn’t take it out in public.

He said he had ‘no prior experience and no formal training’ with firearms.

The inquest was told Mr Harrison suffered an ‘alcohol seizure’ in 2023 that left him in a coma.

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.

In his statement, he said, ‘When I raised the gun to show him, I suddenly heard a loud explosion.’

‘Lucy immediately fell to the ground.’

In a statement read at the hearing, Constable Luciano Escalera, who rushed to the house, said he smelled ‘metabolised alcohol’ on Mr Harrison’s breath but initially lied by saying he had not had alcohol since the previous day.

However, he later admitted to drinking a ‘small’ carton of wine earlier in the day.

A ‘grand jury’ of 12 people from Texas later heard the evidence privately and decided that no one should be prosecuted for Ms Harrison’s death.