During a heated political discussion, the mother of a Texas woman, fatally shot by her father during a visit, has expressed her frustration over local law enforcement not pursuing charges despite “physical evidence” in the case.
Jane Coates felt profound anger after Chris Harrison faced no charges following the shooting death of her 23-year-old daughter, Lucy Harrison, in January 2025 at his home in Prosper, Texas.
“It’s incredibly frustrating. The autopsy findings clearly indicated Lucy had been shot through the heart, in a downward angle,” the devastated mother shared with Sky News on Friday.
Lucy, who lived with her mother in Warrington, England, was about to return to the UK when she was shot.
Initially, Chris Harrison, 52, was investigated for manslaughter, but ultimately, authorities decided against filing any charges.
A Texas grand jury ruled Lucy’s death as accidental last June, a decision Coates labeled as “baffling” and “beyond comprehension.”
“She feels very let down. The anger is there, but it’s not an explosive rage,” Coates mentioned. “I’m determined to seek out the truth and ensure it’s acknowledged.”
Coates explained that Texas investigators reconstructed the scene in Chris Harrison’s bedroom, detailing the gun’s position, the location of Lucy and the shell casing, along with her bloodstains on the floor.
She noted that the investigation indicated Lucy had been more estranged from her father than previously known.
The father admitted to being a relapsed alcoholic, claiming to have consumed a 17-ounce carton of white wine shortly before the incident, while describing how he had been showing off a Glock 9mm handgun when he accidentally shot Lucy.
According to him, “As I lifted the gun to show her, I suddenly heard a loud crash. I couldn’t figure out what was happening. Lucy just collapsed,” adding that he couldn’t remember if his finger had been on the trigger.
Before the shooting, Lucy and her father were reportedly engaged in a heated political argument regarding Donald Trump, as her boyfriend, Sam Littler, arrived from the UK. This was around the time Trump was about to be inaugurated for a second term.
Littler told authorities that the Harrisons often disagreed due to his conservative views and that Lucy had disapproved of him purchasing a gun years earlier.
The argument escalated when Lucy posed a sensitive question about sexual assault, asking her father how he would feel if she were in that situation.
Littler recounted Chris responding that Lucy wasn’t upset because she had two other daughters living with her. The connection to Trump in this confrontation remains unclear.
A senior coroner in Cheshire, Jacqueline Devonish, conducted an independent investigation and determined Lucy had died as a result of “unlawful killing.”
“I’m grateful to the British coroner for thoroughly examining the evidence and concluding it was an unlawful killing,” Coates said.
She expressed anger at the police for bothering to create diagrams of the scene, measuring details like where Lucy fell in relation to the shell casing while seemingly ignoring the physical evidence.
