The mother of the woman fatally shot by her Texas father during her visit to the US amid a politically-charged argument blasted the local police for not bringing up charges in her daughter’s death despite “physical evidence.”
Jane Coates was left with overwhelming anger after Kris Harrison was not charged in the 2025 death of their 23-year-old daughter, Lucy Harrison, at the fiber-optics company executive’s home in Prosper, Texas.
“It’s incredibly frustrating because there was physical evidence there, that there was an autopsy that said Lucy was shot through the heart at a downward trajectory,” the heartbroken mother told Sky News on Friday.
Lucy Harrison, who lived with her mom in Warrington, England, was killed by a gunshot wound to the heart as she was preparing to fly back to the UK on Jan. 10, 2025.
Kris Harrison, 52, was initially investigated for possible manslaughter, but officials ultimately did not bring any criminal charges in the case.
Lucy’s death was ruled accidental by a Texas grand jury last June — a decision Coates called “baffling” and “beyond comprehension.”
“I feel that she has been so let down. I feel anger, but my anger isn’t shouting and raging,” Coates said. “I have a steely determination to call this out and to make sure the truth is heard.”
Coates shared that investigators in Texas had constructed a diagram that reconstructed the scene in Kris Harrison’s bedroom, including the position of the gun, where both Lucy and the spent casing landed, and her blood stains on the floor.
She claimed that the investigation revealed Lucy Harrison was further away from her father than he told police.
The drunken father, who told police he was an alcoholic and had relapsed and drank a 17-ounce carton of white wine hours before the shooting, claimed he was only showing off his Glock 9mm handgun when it accidentally went off.
“As I lifted the gun to show her, I suddenly heard a loud bang. I did not understand what had happened. Lucy immediately fell,” Harrison told Cheshire Coroner’s Court, admitting he couldn’t recall if his finger was on the trigger.
Start your day with all you need to know
Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.
Thanks for signing up!
Hours before the shooting, the father-daughter duo got into a heated political argument involving Donald Trump, who — at the time — was days away from being inaugurated for his second term in office, according to Lucy’s boyfriend, Sam Littler, who had made the trip to the US.
Littler had told officials that the two Harrisons frequently clashed over his conservative leanings, and Lucy was not a fan that he had purchased the gun a few years earlier.
The huge blowout between Lucy Harrison and her father came after she asked an unspecified hypothetical about sexual assaults.
“How would you feel if I was the girl in that situation and I’d been sexually assaulted?” Lucy had asked her father.
Kris allegedly shot back that it wouldn’t upset him that much because he had two other daughters who were living with him, according to Littler. It was unclear how Trump factored into the argument.
Cheshire Senior Coroner Jacqueline Devonish conducted her own investigation and concluded Lucy Harrison died from an “unlawful killing.”
“I am so grateful for our UK coroner for looking at all the evidence. She had all the evidence and she came to that unlawful killing conclusion,” Coates said.
“I feel anger that the police actually took the time to draw this diagram, to see the measurements, to see where Lucy fell in relation to where the shell casing was,” Coates added. “For me its like they had chosen to not follow the physical evidence.”
