A British woman who was shot dead by her father while visiting his home in Texas had argued with him about US President Donald Trump earlier that day, an inquest has heard.
Lucy Harrison, from Warrington in Cheshire, was shot in the chest on 10 January 2025 in Prosper, near Dallas.
Police in the town investigated the 23-year-old’s death as possible manslaughter but no criminal case was brought against Kris Harrison after a grand jury in Collin County declined to indict him.
An inquest into Lucy Harrison’s death opened earlier at Cheshire Coroner’s Court, where her boyfriend Sam Littler described the “big argument” about Trump, who was preparing to be inaugurated for his second term of office.
Littler, who travelled to the US with Lucy Harrison for the holiday, said she would often become upset with her father when he spoke about owning a gun.
The inquest also heard how Kris Harrison, who moved to the United States when his daughter was a child, had previously been to rehab for alcohol addiction.
Kris Harrison, who did not attend the inquest, admitted in a statement sent to the court that he had relapsed on the day of the shooting and had drunk about 500ml of white wine.
Littler said on the morning of 10 January his partner had asked her father during the Trump row: “How would you feel if I was the girl in that situation and I’d been sexually assaulted?”
Kris Harrison had replied that he had two other daughters who lived with him so it would not upset him that much.
Littler said Lucy became “quite upset” and ran upstairs.
Harrison said he could not recall whether his finger was on the trigger.
He acknowledged he had issues with alcohol in the past and said he “briefly lapsed” on the day of his daughter’s death because he was emotional about her leaving.
The inquest heard police officer Luciana Escalera, whose evidence was read, noticed the smell of alcohol on Harrison’s breath when he was called to the house after the shooting.
CCTV footage showed he had bought two 500ml cartons of Chardonnay from a 7-Eleven store shortly before 13:00 CST (05:00 GMT) that day.