Chilling footage shows moment dad admits to shooting daughter, 23, dead in US after 'row about Donald Trump'
A father who fatally shot his 23-year-old daughter following an argument about Donald Trump told police the gun 'just went off'.
Bodycam footage obtained by officers who rushed to Kris Harrison's home in Prosper, Texas, shows the dad describing the deadly incident to cops.
Lucy Harrison, who lived in Warrington, Cheshire, was killed on 10 January last year.
The fashion buyer, who worked for Boohoo, had been visiting her dad in the US over the festive period with her boyfriend Sam Littler when horror struck.
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An inquest at Cheshire Coroner’s Court heard how Lucy had a row with Kris about US President Donald Trump, who was due to be inaugurated later that month.
According to her boyfriend Sam, Lucy was left upset by this exchange, which occurred shortly before they were due to leave for the airport to head back to the UK.
Before they left the property, Kris ushered Lucy into his ground floor bedroom where he kept a Glock semi-automatic handgun in his bedside cabinet - and moments later, a gunshot rang out.
He claimed that he was chatting about guns to his daughter before she then asked to see it, although the inquest heard that Lucy was already aware of the weapon and disagreed with him owning it.
Kris said he purchased it to give his family a 'sense of security'. Due to the law in Texas, he did not need a licence to do so.
In footage from the scene recorded by responding officers, he is seen explaining his version of events to police.
The video shows Kris reciting the conversation he claims to have had with Lucy to a cop, as the dad says: "She just said, 'You got a gun?' I said, 'Yes'. I got it out and it just went off as she stood there."
Explaining his connection to her, Kris said: "That's our daughter. We were getting ready to go to the airport and we were talking about guns."
When asked what he had done with the weapon after this, Kris said: "I put it on the bed straight away, yeah. It was in the bedside cabinet. In a locked box.
"We took it out to look and just as I picked it up it went off."
A grand jury in the US previously determined there was not enough evidence to charge anyone in connection with Lucy's death.
However, a UK coroner yesterday (11 February) ruled that the 23-year-old Brit was unlawfully killed on the grounds of gross negligence manslaughter.
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.
"I find these actions to be reckless. With a bullet through her heart her prognosis was poor in any event."
Ms Devonish described Kris as a 'secret drinker', saying she was left 'in no doubt whatsoever' that he had been drinking continuously on the day of the shooting.
She also dubbed him a 'teaser' and noted that he would have known he was doing when he removed the gun from its box - while saying she did not accept the idea that Lucy had asked to see the weapon.
"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," Ms Devonish said.
Speaking outside the coroner’s court in Warrington, Lucy's mother Jane Coates said: "Today’s outcome has finally given Lucy her voice back, after what has been an unrelenting year of deep shock, grief and fight.
"Although we are satisfied with the coroner’s conclusion, there is much to be learnt from Lucy’s needless and entirely avoidable death."
Topics: UK News, US News, Donald Trump, Parenting
Olivia Burke