U.K. Inquest Finds British Woman Was Killed ‘Unlawfully’ in Texas Shooting

A British coroner ruled that a Texas man acted with gross negligence when he accidentally shot his 23-year-old daughter, who was visiting from Britain last year.Lucy Harrison, 23, of Cheshire, in Northern England, was killed when a gun her father was handling discharged while she was visiting his home in Texas last year.Credit...Cheshire ConstabularyFeb. 11, 2026, 1:47 p.m. ETA British coroner’s court on Wednesday ruled that a 23-year-old woman who was shot to death by her father while on vacation in Texas last year was killed “unlawfully,” a finding that came after a Texas grand jury decided last year not to indict him.The woman, Lucy Harrison, from Cheshire in northern England, was shot in the chest in January 2025 by her father, Kris Harrison, at his home in Prosper, Texas, a northern suburb of Dallas. A grand jury in Texas declined to indict Mr. Harrison after the shooting. The British inquest, in its conclusion, found that Mr. Harrison had accidentally discharged the gun while showing it to Lucy.Jacqueline Devonish, the coroner, said that Mr. Harrison had committed an unlawful killing on the grounds of gross negligence manslaughter.The coroner concluded that while the gun discharged accidentally, the wound to the chest could have occurred only with the gun pointed directly at Lucy Harrison, who was standing across the room.“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,” Ms. Devonish said in her ruling, which was filed in the Cheshire Coroner’s Court in Warrington, England, southwest of Manchester.“Whilst I accept that there was a lack of intent” on the part of Mr. Harrison, she added, “for the reasons stated I do find that his actions were truly exceptionally bad and reprehensible so as to amount to gross negligence.”Mr. Harrison, who could not be reached on Wednesday, did not attend the inquest. He said in a statement reported by the BBC that as he lifted the gun to show it to his daughter, he immediately heard a bang. “I did not understand what had happened,” he wrote in the statement. “Lucy immediately fell.” His lawyer, Ana Samuel, declined to comment.Mr. Harrison said in a statement reported by The Liverpool Echo that he “fully accepts 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, and I know that nothing I say can ease the heartbreak this tragedy has caused.”The ruling has no legal effect in the United States. Jane Coates, Lucy Harrison’s mother, said in a statement that while she understood that the ruling was made in a coroner’s court and not in a criminal court, she still welcomed it after “an unrelenting year of deep shock, grief and fight.” She also said that the grand jury in Texas “seemed to have no option but to conclude” that “no prosecution could be brought, based on the evidence they were presented with.”Just before the shooting on Jan. 10, 2025, Lucy Harrison was relaxing in the basement of her father’s house with her boyfriend, Samuel Littler, and other family members before going to the airport to fly back to Britain, according to documents from the coroner’s court. According to court documents from the inquest, Mr. Littler said that Mr. Harrison took Ms. Harrison by the hand and led her to his bedroom. Shortly after, Mr. Littler heard a loud bang and Mr. Harrison screaming for his wife, Heather.Mr. Harrison, who was born in Britain but is a U.S. citizen, kept a Glock handgun in a box in a night stand beside his bed, according to documents from the coroner’s court.The summary of the inquest said that an officer from the Prosper Police Department “could smell alcohol” when speaking to Mr. Harrison, but that Mr. Harrison denied being under the influence of alcohol at the time of the shooting. The inquest summary said the officer reported that Mr. Harrison “had accidentally discharged the firearm, striking Lucy.”British and American gun laws differ significantly. In Texas, it is legal to own a gun without a license, while in Britain, the rules are much stricter. Prospective gun owners must have a firearms license issued by the police to possess or acquire a firearm or shotgun.Ms. Coates, who had separated from Mr. Harrison many years ago, said in her statement that “we respectfully accept that our two cultures are different in regards to firearms, yet we feel Texas gun laws did not keep Lucy safe from harm.” She said that the grand jury hearing in the United States lacked the “rigor and scrutiny” that she would have expected to have been applied if the case had been heard in Britain.Rylee Kirk contributed reporting.Jenny Gross is a reporter for The Times covering breaking news and other topics.Christine Hauser is a Times reporter who writes breaking news stories, features and explainers.SKIP