A legal expert has offered an explanation as to why the father who shot his daughter dead in Texas over an argument relating to Donald Trump won’t face charges.
According to reports, Lucy Harrison, 23, was shot and killed while staying with her father, Kris Harrison, at his family home in Prosper, Texas.
Lucy, a fashion buyer from Warrington, in the UK, had traveled to the US with her boyfriend, Sam Littler. The pair were due to fly home on January 10, 2025.
Yet on the day of her intended departure, Lucy was shot dead by her own father, with an inquest in Cheshire Coroner’s Court, UK, being told by Littler that the two parties had been ‘having quite a big argument’.
Littler recalled that Lucy and her father often had disagreements over differing political stances, including the subject of gun ownership.
Sky News reported that the pair were arguing about Donald Trump on January 10, 2025, with Lucy having asked Kris how he would feel if she were sexually assaulted.
The dad allegedly replied that he wouldn’t be that upset, reportedly referring to the fact that he has two other daughters who live with him.
Littler said that Kris’s words caused Lucy to ‘run upstairs’ as a result of her ‘upset’.
The boyfriend also said Kris then took Lucy by her hand, leading her to his bedroom on the ground floor of the home. Around 15 seconds later, Littler recalled hearing a sudden bang and Kris shouting for his wife.
A grand jury resolved that no one would be prosecuted over Lucy’s death, declining to indict Kris in June, 2025, despite an inquest finding that she was unlawfully killed on the grounds of gross negligence manslaughter.
Bodycam footage taken by officers inside Kris’ home in Prosper, Texas, recorded the moment the father told police he had been in the process of showing Lucy his gun when it “just went off”.
He claimed to have had a conversation with his daughter before they were due to leave for the airport, and that Lucy had asked to see his gun as she didn’t know he had one.
An inquest in Cheshire, UK, however, heard evidence from others that Lucy was well aware that Kris kept a gun, and that she disagreed with it.
Kris said in a statement: “As I lifted the gun to show her I suddenly heard a loud bang. I did not understand what had happened. Lucy immediately fell.”
The coroner in the inquest accepted that Kris did not know the gun was loaded but refuted the idea that Lucy had asked to see the weapon.
Senior coroner Jacqueline Devonish said: “His actions have killed his own daughter and in the cold light of day it is hoped that he now recognises the risk he posed to her life in circumstances in which he had no experience of guns, had undertaken no training and had never fired a gun.”
Due to Texas law, Kris did not require a license to purchase the gun that fired the fatal shot.
Now, Lindsay Richards, former prosecutor turned criminal defense lawyer, has claimed that Kris is not facing any charges in the US because of ‘politics’.
The legal expert, based in Austin, Texas, told the New York Post: “I honestly believe that the fact that he was not indicted and has not had any consequences for doing this is symptomatic of a very conservative county in Texas.
“The only thing we can boil this down to is looking at our political climate. A conservative county in Texas, and this was the result.”
Richards also suggested that Trump’s name being mentioned and the ongoing debate regarding gun laws in the U.S. may have factored into the decision not to prosecute Kris.
“I also think it should be noted that he had been drinking that day as well,” Richards added.
“So that’s another element to this that I cannot believe was not considered in his criminal negligence. That’s obvious.”
The expert went on to reveal her dismay at Kris not having faced prosecution.
“I’ve seen cases in Texas where individuals that have been indicted for manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide for running traffic lights,” she said.
“So certainly an individual taking a firearm, showing it to his daughter. And had to have been pointing it at her…that doesn’t typically happen.”
Meanwhile, Lucy’s mother, Jane Coates, claimed her daughter had been ‘failed’ by Texan gun laws and decisions made by the police department.
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