Lucy Harrison with her father Kris Harrison (Image: .)
A father who fatally shot his daughter after earlier rowing about Donald Trump has broken his silence. Lucy Harrison, a fashion buyer from Warrington, Cheshire, was hit in the chest from “medium range” by her father Kris Harrison while she was staying at his home in the United States, an inquest heard.
In a statement issued by his solicitors, Mr Harrison said he is “deeply sorry”. He said: “I fully accept the consequences of my actions, and there isn’t a day I don’t feel the weight of that loss — a weight I will carry for the rest of my life, and I know that nothing I say can ease the heartbreak this tragedy has caused. I cannot undo what happened, but I can honour Lucy by being the best father I can be to her sisters and by carrying her memory forward in everything we do.
Lucy Harrison was 23-years-old (Image: Liverpool Echo)
“I am deeply sorry for the pain others feel from this tragedy. Lucy’s spirit — her warmth, her humour, her kindness — will live on in all of us who loved her.”
The incident at Mr Harrison’s home in Prosper, Texas, happened in January last year.
Giving evidence at Cheshire Coroner’s Court on Tuesday, Ms Harrison’s boyfriend Sam Littler said he had travelled with her to the US, where her father had moved when she was a child, for the holiday.
Kris Harrison said: ‘I fully accept the consequences of my actions’ (Image: -)
He said Ms Harrison would often become upset with her father, who the inquest heard was an alcoholic, when he spoke about his ownership of a gun.
On the morning of January 10, when the couple were due to return home to the UK, there was a “big” argument between Ms Harrison and her father about Mr Trump, who was to be inaugurated as president, Mr Littler said.
He said: “Kris and Lucy ended up having quite a big argument which led to Lucy running upstairs and being upset.”
He said Ms Harrison asked her father how he would feel if she was sexually assaulted.
Mr Harrison had replied that he had two other daughters who lived with him so it would not upset him that much, Mr Littler said.
He told the coroner’s court that later that day, about half an hour before they were to leave to go to the airport, Ms Harrison had been in the kitchen, when her father took her by the hand and led her into his ground floor bedroom.
About 15 seconds later he heard a loud bang and then heard Mr Harrison screaming for his wife, Heather, he said.
Mr Littler said: “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.”
Mr Harrison did not attend the hearing but, in a statement, said he and his daughter had been watching a news segment on gun crime on television when he told her he had a gun and asked her if she wanted to see it.
When she said yes they went into the bedroom so he could show her the Glock 9mm semi-automatic handgun which he kept in the bedside cabinet, he said.
He said he had bought the gun a couple of years before because he wanted a “sense of security” for his family and denied ever discussing it with his daughter before.
Lucy Harrison was a fashion buyer from Warrington (Image: -)
A licence is not required when a gun is owned for home defence in Texas, he said.
Mr Harrison said he did not recall whether his finger was on the trigger when he took the gun out of the case.
He said: “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 inquest heard a grand jury in the US determined there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone in connection with Ms Harrison’s death.
Mr Harrison 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.
He said he drank 500ml of white wine over the course of two to three hours earlier in the day.
The inquest heard police officer Luciana Escalera, whose evidence was read, noticed the smell of alcohol on Mr Harrison’s breath when he was called to the house after the shooting.
CCTV footage showed Mr Harrison had bought two 500ml cartons of Chardonnay from a 7-Eleven store shortly before 1pm that day.
Ana Samuel, representing Mr Harrison, made an application at the start of the hearing for coroner Jacqueline Devonish to recuse herself from the case, saying the inquest had been conducted “in a manner more akin to a criminal investigation than a fact-finding inquiry”.
Lois Norris, representing Ms Harrison’s mother, said the application was an “ambush by Mr Harrison’s legal team”.
Ms Devonish refused the application to recuse herself.
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