A British woman died from a gunshot to the chest in Texas after arguing with her father about President Donald Trump, and a coroner now calls his actions “gross.”
Lucy Harrison, 23, from Cheshire, was killed last January at her father’s home in Prosper, Texas.
An autopsy from the Collin County Medical Examiner confirmed she died from a gunshot wound to the chest.
Texas authorities reviewed the case as possible manslaughter, yet a Collin County grand jury declined to indict her father, Kris Harrison.
Officials in England opened an inquest to examine how she died. Cheshire Coroner’s Court began the process in Warrington and adjourned the case pending a formal ruling.
The hearing pulled back the curtain on what unfolded inside the Texas home hours before the fatal shot.
Sam Littler, Harrison’s boyfriend, told the court the father and daughter had a “big argument” about Trump.
The dispute centered on accusations of sexual assault against the president. Littler testified that Lucy asked her father, “How would you feel if I was the girl in that situation, and I’d been sexually assaulted?”
Littler recounted that Kris Harrison replied he had two other daughters who lived with him and it would not upset him that much.
He told the inquest Lucy was “upset” by her father’s response and ran upstairs. The couple later prepared to leave for the airport to return home.
Littler stated that Kris Harrison took Lucy into his bedroom to show her a firearm after they watched a news report about gun crime.
Moments later, Littler said he saw Lucy lying on the floor and heard Kris Harrison screaming .
Kris Harrison did not attend the inquest but submitted a statement through solicitors. He acknowledged that he had a drinking problem and had relapsed that day by drinking 17 fluid ounces of white wine.
He wrote that he and Lucy had been discussing gun crime when he mentioned owning a firearm and asked if she wanted to check it out.
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The pair entered the bedroom where he kept a Glock 9 mm semi-automatic handgun in a bedside cabinet. He claimed he purchased the gun for a “sense of security” for his family and had not discussed it with Lucy before.
“As I lifted the gun to show her I suddenly heard a loud bang. I did not understand what had happened. Lucy immediately fell,” he stated.
He admitted he couldn’t remember if his finger had been on the trigger. He also conceded past alcohol issues and described himself as having “briefly lapsed” because he felt emotional about his daughter leaving.
Evidence at the inquest painted a harsher picture. A responding officer detected alcohol on his breath, and CCTV footage showed he purchased two bottles of wine earlier that day.
Responding officers did not breathalyse him or collect a blood sample after he told them he was “not under the influence.”
Senior Coroner Jacqueline Devonish labeled Kris Harrison a “functioning alcoholic” and focused on his drinking before the shooting.
She told the court, “I find that Kris Harrison did not immediately tell the truth about his drinking to those representing him.”
Devonish stated that he admitted drinking continuously since the morning of the incident. She described him as a “secret drinker” and criticized his plan to drive Lucy and Sam to the airport that afternoon.
“I am left in no doubt whatsoever that he had been drinking continuously on 10 January,” she said.
The coroner rejected his account that the gun discharged as he removed it from its box. She pointed to the layout of the room and where Lucy’s body was found.
“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 pulled the trigger. I find this action to be reckless,” Devonish ruled.
She further accused the elder Harrison of negligence in her findings. “Accidental discharge of a gun into the chest of a person whilst pointing a gun at their chest and pulling the trigger must meet the threshold of being ‘gross’,” she said.
She added that the gun had to be aimed directly at Lucy across the room and called the behavior “gross” because it carried an obvious risk of death.
In a statement read to the court, Kris Harrison wrote that he “fully accepted” the consequences of his actions.
“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,” he stated.
As that case reverberates across two countries, another father-son tragedy unfolded in the United States.
Jacob Sanders, 34, faces a first-degree intentional homicide charge in Wisconsin after authorities allege he stabbed his father more than 25 times and stole his classic car.
Police say Sanders drove his father’s 1989 Chevrolet Caprice into Indiana, where a traffic stop triggered the investigation.
A Vigo County deputy pulled Sanders over for a seatbelt violation and failing to use a turn signal. Officers reported that Sanders lit a cigarette and shuffled papers during the stop. He presented a driver’s permit and lacked a valid license.
The deputy noticed blood on Sanders’ hands and alerted Wisconsin authorities. Mauston police conducted a welfare check and discovered Michael Sanders, 73, dead in a motel room covered in blood.
An autopsy found more than 26 sharp force injuries, including defensive wounds and nearly severed fingers.
Investigators located a curved knife with dried blood in Jacob Sanders’ room. He remains in Indiana as extradition proceedings move forward and faces a separate charge for taking and driving a vehicle without consent.
