Kris Harrison, the Texas father who fatally wounded his 23-year-old daughter Lucy Harrison after a political argument about President Donald Trump, has been heard describing the moment the firearm discharged in newly released body camera footage.
The video, released by Cheshire Coroner’s Court in the UK, captures the aftermath of the January 10, 2025 altercation at Harrison’s home in Prosper, about 35 miles north of Dallas.
Lucy, who was visiting from Warrington, Cheshire, was struck in the chest shortly before 3 pm, just as she and her boyfriend were preparing to leave for the airport.
The information has shed a new light on the case, which ended up being ruled as accidental.
Bodycam footage shows Kris Harrison explaining to officers how he ended up firing at his own daughter
Image credits: FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth
“She said, ‘Do you have a g*n?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ I got it out and it just went off as she stood there, like as I pulled it out it went off,” Harrison told police in the footage.
He said the Glock 9mm was kept in a locked box in a bedside cabinet. “We took it out to look, and just as I picked it up, it went off,” he added, saying it “must have been” loaded.
Image credits: Cheshire Coroner’s Court
Lucy’s boyfriend, Sam Littler, can be seen in the clip holding his hands on his head as Harrison speaks with officers.
The inquest at Cheshire Coroner’s Court heard that the attack followed a “big argument” between father and daughter about Trump, who was preparing to be inaugurated for a second term later that month.
Image credits: Cheshire Coroner’s Court
According to Littler, the disagreement escalated during a discussion involving firearm rights and se**al as*ault.
“How would you feel if I were the girl in that situation and I’d been s**ually as**ulted?” Lucy asked her father, Littler told the court.
He said Kris replied that it would not upset him that much because he had two other daughters living with him. Littler testified that Lucy became “quite upset” and ran upstairs.
Roughly 30 minutes before the couple was due to leave for the airport, Littler alleged that Kris took Lucy by the hand and led her into his ground-floor bathroom. Nearly 15 seconds later, he heard a loud bang.
“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 said.
Harrison said the firearm discharged accidentally and denied being drunk when the altercation occurred
Image credits: FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth
In a statement read to the court on his behalf, after he chose not to attend the two-day hearing, Harrison claimed the firearm discharged accidentally while he was showing it to Lucy after they had been watching a news item on firearm-related crime.
“As I lifted the g*n to show her, I suddenly heard a loud bang. I did not understand what had happened. Lucy immediately fell,” he said.
He admitted he could not recall whether his finger was on the trigger.
Harrison said he bought the Glock 9mm semi-automatic a few years earlier for what he described as “a sense of security” for his family.
Under Texas law, no license is required to own a firearm.
Image credits: FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth
He also admitted he was an alcoholic who had relapsed that day and had drunk three glasses of wine, according to the BBC. CCTV footage showed he purchased two 500ml cartons of Chardonnay from a 7-Eleven.
Police officer Luciana Escalera later noticed the smell of the drinks on his breath.
Harrison has a troubled history with drinking, as he’s reported to have suffered an alcoholic seizure in 2023 that left him in an induced coma.
On the day Lucy was attacked, he had allegedly drunk a 17-ounce carton of white wine but said he did not believe he was under the influence when the firearm went off.
In a controversial turn of events, the tragedy was ruled accidental by the Texas grand jury
Although the case was initially investigated for possible manslaughter, a Collin County grand jury declined to indict Harrison. Lucy’s passing was ruled accidental by the Texas grand jury last June.
Her mother, Jane Coates, described that decision as “baffling” and “beyond comprehension.”
In the UK, however, senior coroner Jacqueline Devonish reached a different conclusion about the mechanics of the attack.
Image credits: Ilea Pacheco/Facebook
“To shoot her through the chest whilst she was standing would have required him to have been pointing the g*n at his daughter, without checking for bullets, and pulling the trigger,” she said.
“I accept he was a teaser, and on the balance of probabilities, this is what he was doing. I accept he did not realize the g*n was loaded,” the senior coroner added.
Image credits: FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth
Online reaction has been divided.
“The prosecutors need to present their case to another grand jury,” one reader wrote. “Hopefully, it could be that the grand jury didn’t fully understand their roles and that can be remedied in another grand jury.”
Others disagreed.
“If the prosecutors couldn’t convince the grand jury (at a proceeding in which the defense sat silent) that there was probable cause to arrest, it seems a new grand jury would be a lost cause,” another commenter argued.
Kris Harrison will not face criminal charges in Texas.
“Horrifying.” Netizens called for the father to be sent to prison
