A British woman shot dead by her alcoholic father after getting into an argument over Donald Trump was unlawfully killed, a coroner has ruled.
Lucy Harrison, a fashion buyer for Boohoo who lived in Warrington, Cheshire, was shot in the chest by Kris Harrison at his home in Prosper, Texas, shortly before 3pm on January 10 last year.
Mr Harrison, described by the coroner as a functioning alcoholic, claimed the gun had gone off accidentally.
He has been allowed to walk free ever since, with Lucy’s mother claiming she had fallen foul of Texan gun laws.
Concluding her inquest on Thursday, senior coroner Jacqueline Devonish said: ‘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.
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‘I find these actions to be reckless.’
Family members were in tears in court as the coroner announced that she found Ms Harrison died due to unlawful killing on the grounds of gross negligence manslaughter.
Speaking outside the coroner’s court in Warrington, Ms Harrison’s mother Jane Coates said: ‘Today’s outcome has finally given Luce her voice back, after what has been an unrelenting year of deep shock, grief and fight.’
She said her daughter was ‘failed’ by Texan gun laws and decisions made by the police department in Prosper.
She added: ‘Although we are satisfied with the coroner’s conclusion, there is much to be learnt from Lucy’s needless and entirely avoidable death.’
Ms Harrison’s boyfriend Sam Littler, who had travelled with her to the States, told an inquest that earlier in the day Ms Harrison had become upset after she and her father argued about Donald Trump, who was due to be inaugurated as president later that month.
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