The mother of a British student fatally shot in Texas by her father is urging US police to reopen the case after a UK coroner ruled the death an unlawful killing. Jane Coates, from Cheshire, hopes new evidence will prompt a fresh investigation into the death of her 23-year-old daughter, Lucy Harrison.
Lucy was shot through the heart at her father Kris Harrison's home in Texas following a disagreement about Donald Trump. Senior coroner Jacqueline Devonish found that Kris, an alcoholic who had been drinking, pointed a gun at his daughter and pulled the trigger. He was never charged by Texas police, who accepted his claim that the gun discharged accidentally while he lifted it to show her.
During the inquest, it was revealed that Lucy had challenged her father about Trump's alleged sexual misconduct, saying: 'How would you feel if I were the girl in that situation and I'd been sexually assaulted?' Kris reportedly replied that he had two other daughters, so it would not bother him. Later that day, he claimed he offered to show Lucy his gun, though her family said she already knew about it and would not have wanted to see it.
Lucy's boyfriend, Sam Littler, heard a gunshot and found her on the floor. Kris called for his wife but did not tell emergency services that his daughter had been shot, instead claiming she had fainted. Bodycam footage showed Kris telling officers: 'I got it out and it just went off as she stood there.'
Local police initially investigated criminally negligent homicide but later ruled the death accidental. A former prosecutor suggested Kris avoided indictment because the incident occurred in a conservative, pro-gun county. The coroner concluded: '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.'
