A British graduate, Lucy Harrison, 23, who was passionately anti-guns, was tragically shot dead by her own father, Kris Harrison, while visiting his home in Prosper, Texas, on January 10 last year. A coroner in the UK has since ruled that Lucy was unlawfully killed, concluding that her father, a "functioning alcoholic" who had consumed at least 500ml of wine that morning, "recklessly" aimed his Glock 9mm pistol at her chest as a "tease," unaware it was loaded, and pulled the trigger.

Lucy, a fashion buyer from Warrington, Cheshire, had been preparing to fly home after a post-Christmas break with her boyfriend, Sam Littler. On the morning of the tragedy, an inquest heard that Kris Harrison, an executive at a fibre optics company who had settled in Texas, had been drinking and had an argument with his daughter about Donald Trump. Mr. Littler, who was present at the house, described feeling "on edge" due to the "very opinionated people" and Lucy's confessed anxiety about the "volatility" and the presence of a gun in the house, particularly with her younger half-sisters present. Lucy was "categorically anti-gun" and felt it was unsafe for her father to possess a firearm.

Mr. Harrison, who did not attend the inquest but submitted a witness statement, claimed Lucy had asked to see his handgun after they watched a news report about gun crime, and that it "just went off" as he removed it from its case. He stated he had bought the semi-automatic weapon for "home defence," for which he did not need a license in Texas, and admitted he had "no prior experience and no formal training" around firearms, having never fired a gun before. However, Mr. Littler insisted Lucy would not have been interested in seeing the weapon, recounting how Mr. Harrison took Lucy by the hand in a "mysterious" manner, leading her to the downstairs bedroom where the gun was kept. Within 15 seconds, Mr. Littler heard a "loud bang" and found Lucy collapsed, shot through the heart, dying at the scene.

Senior coroner Jacqueline Devonish, giving her findings, described Mr. Harrison's actions as "reprehensible." She rejected his explanation that the gun "just went off," stating that for Lucy to be shot through the chest from across the bedroom, he must have been pointing the gun at her without checking for bullets and pulling the trigger. The coroner accepted that Mr. Harrison, known for teasing, was likely doing so but did not realize the gun was loaded. She highlighted his recklessness in buying a pistol without any training, stating, "His actions have killed his own daughter and in the cold light of day it is hoped that he now recognises the risk he posed to her life." Ms. Devonish concluded that Mr. Harrison's actions amounted to gross negligence manslaughter under English law, aggravated by his alcohol intake.

The tragedy was further compounded by the handling of the case in the US. Despite emergency services rushing to the scene, police in the US state had initially deemed Lucy's death accidental last June, a decision her mother, Jane Coates, described as "baffling" and "beyond comprehension." The inquest also heard that Texas police failed to test Mr. Harrison for alcohol despite an officer smelling "metabolised alcohol" on his breath, even though Mr. Harrison initially lied about his drinking before confessing to a "small" carton of wine. Ms. Coates, alongside Mr. Littler, strongly criticized the US investigation led by the Prosper Police Department, stating it "lacked the rigour and scrutiny you’d expect if this had happened in the UK."

Lucy’s grieving mother welcomed the coroner’s finding, thanking her for giving Lucy’s "voice back" after an "unrelenting year of deep shock, grief and fight." She expressed profound sorrow, saying, "I never imagined she would be shot and killed in the US, in a place where she should have been safe." Ms. Coates criticized the disparity in gun cultures, asserting, "Texas gun laws did not keep Lucy safe from harm" and that firearms cause "too many deaths in the USA." She emphasized that there was "much to be learnt from Lucy’s needless and entirely avoidable death," vowing not to let "bitterness and hatred" consume her, and urged for change: "Make change. Do better. Be better."

In his first public comments since the tragedy, released through his lawyers after an unsuccessful attempt to have the coroner removed, Kris Harrison paid tribute to Lucy as "the light of my life" and expressed deep sorrow for the pain caused. He stated, "I fully accept the consequences of my actions, and 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 committed to honoring Lucy by being the best father to her younger sisters and carrying her memory forward.