British coroner rules Texan father unlawfully killed daughter with gun

Lucy Harrison was shot and killed by her father, Kris, following a disagreement last January. Photo / Cheshire Police

A British coroner has described an American father who shot his daughter following a dispute about guns as a “teaser” in her ruling as she determined the dad had committed manslaughter.

Kris Harrison shot and killed his British daughter, Lucy Harrison, during a visit to his Texan home on January 10 last year, according to the New York Post.

The pair had argued about President Donald Trump and gun rights earlier that day, with friends describing the 23-year-old as “categorically anti-gun”.

While Kris maintained the Glock 9mm pistol had gone off as he showed it to his daughter, senior coroner Jacqueline Devonish still found the “functioning alcoholic” had unlawfully killed her.

Devonish rejected Kris’s claims that he “did not understand what had happened” immediately after the shot went off, stating he must have known “full well” he had shot her in the circumstances.

“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 realise the gun was loaded.”

The Guardian reported that Devonish concluded Lucy was unlikely to have asked to see the weapon as Kris claimed, given her father’s lack of experience with firearms.

“His actions have killed his daughter and in the cold light of day it is hoped that he now recognises the risk he posed to her life in circumstances in which he had no experience of guns, had undertaken no training, and had never fired a gun.”

In his statement to the British inquest, which he did attend, Kris said Lucy was a “remarkable young woman” and “the light of my life”, according to the Irish Mirror.

“Losing Lucy has shattered all of us. I lost my best friend. My girls lost their big sister and hero, and her stepmom lost a bonus daughter who taught her how to be a mum.

“I fully accept the consequences of my action, 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, and I know that nothing I can say can ease the heartbreak this tragedy has caused.”