The grieving mother of a British woman allegedly shot and killed by her father during an argument about President Donald Trump is calling for the case to be investigated again.
Lucy Harrison, 23, suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the chest on January 10, 2025, inside her father’s home in Prosper, Texas.
Kris Harrison, 52, said the weapon discharged accidentally as he removed it from its container. A grand jury accepted that account and declined to indict him on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, allowing him to avoid prison.
Lucy’s mother and Kris Harrison’s former wife, Jane Coates, is now urging the Collin County District Attorney’s Office to reopen the investigation.
“I simply want the truth about what happened,” she told the New York Post. “I want the people responsible for investigating her death to sit down with us and listen to what we have been told by independent experts.”
Lucy’s boyfriend, Sam Littler, traveled to the United States with her and told investigators that she and her father had argued about Trump’s impending inauguration ahead of his second term.
Littler said Kris then took Lucy to a bedroom to show her the gun. Moments later, he heard a shot, according to the BBC.
“I remember running into the room, and Lucy was lying on the floor near the entrance to the bathroom, and Kris was just screaming, just sort of nonsense,” Littler testified.
Lucy Harrison, 23, was fatally shot in the chest at her father’s home in Prosper, Texas, on January 10, 2025
Her mother, Jane Coates, is traveling to the United States in an effort to persuade prosecutors to reopen the case
Kris had allegedly been drinking on the day Lucy was killed.
During an inquest in the United Kingdom, officials concluded that Lucy died as a result of gross-negligence manslaughter—a crime involving a death caused by a serious breach of a duty of care. The offense is broadly similar to involuntary manslaughter in the United States.
“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,” Jacqueline Devonish, senior coroner for Cheshire, told the inquest.
Devonish also described Kris as a “functioning alcoholic” and determined that he had “unlawfully killed” his daughter.
Craig Miller, a retired Texas homicide detective, reached a similar conclusion. “Guns just don’t go off. The only person who could have fired the gun is the dad,” he told The Post.
Miller also raised questions about the position of Lucy’s wound. “Why didn’t the bullet come in through the side? It entered directly through the center of the chest,” he said.
According to Miller, the wound’s location does not fit with Kris Harrison’s account of the shooting.
Body-camera footage showed Kris telling police that he had not been drinking. Investigators later determined that he had allegedly consumed a 17-ounce carton of white wine that day.
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A grand jury declined to indict Lucy’s father, Kris Harrison, 52, and determined that her death was accidental
“I simply want the truth about what happened,” Coates told the New York Post. “I want the people responsible for investigating her death to sit down with us and listen to what we have been told by independent experts.” Pictured: Lucy
‘There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t think about Lucy and everything she should have had in front of her,’ Coates (middle) said
‘When a person lies and is inconsistent with their testimony, those are important facts for the police to look at and consider,’ Miller told the Post.
Kris previously said through his attorney that he ‘fully accepted’ the consequences and that he ‘will carry’ the weight of his daughter’s death ‘for the rest of my life.’
The Prosper Police Department said it would not be reopening its investigation.
‘The case was subsequently referred to the Collin County District Attorney’s Office and presented to an independent grand jury, which ultimately declined to move forward with criminal charges,’ a spokesperson told the Post.
However, Coates, who is flying to the US from the UK, is hoping the DA’s Office will change its mind.
‘There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t think about Lucy and everything she should have had in front of her,’ she told the outlet.
‘I want people to see her as a person, not just as a case. She was funny, kind, loving and full of life. She had dreams. She had people who loved her deeply. She deserved a future.’
Radd Seiger, Coates’ lawyer, said in a statement that the police and DA’s Office has ‘continued to refuse to meet’ with the mother.
‘Our door remains open to them should they change their minds. That refusal says more about them than it does about Jane,’ Seiger said.
‘The authorities say the investigation was thorough and complete. But where is the evidence that the accidental discharge explanation was properly tested?
‘Where is the scene reconstruction? Where is the toxicology on Harrison, a self-confessed alcoholic who was drinking from very early in the morning on the day Lucy was killed, with officers reportedly smelling alcohol on his breath? Where is the gunshot residue evidence? Where is the full forensic picture? Where is the ballistics work?
‘Where is the evidence showing that every obvious line of enquiry was pursued? The authorities simply cannot, and so far will not, answer these questions.’
Seiger said they have come to Dallas to ‘seek justice’ and to ‘see if the authorities here step forward and do the right thing.’
‘All eyes are on them, and rightly so. The ball is in their court. We are going to keep asking for the meetings,’ he said.
Our News Outlet has reached out to the DA’s Office and Kris for comment.
