Animal lovers everywhere were shocked last month after actress Angie Harmon, of Rizzoli & Isles and Law & Order fame, announced that her dog Oliver had been shot and killed by an Instacart delivery driver.
Now, Harmon is opening up about the tragic and shocking loss — and taking legal action against the company and the culprit.
Dog shot by driver
The incident occurred last month over Easter weekend. Harmon had groceries delivered to her North Carolina home via Instacart, and the delivery driver shot and killed her dog, a beagle mix named Oliver.
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Harmon wrote on Instagram that the driver admitted to shooting the dog, claiming self defense. “He shot our dog with my daughters & myself at home & just kept saying, ‘yeah, I shot your dog. Yeah I did,’” Harmon wrote.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department did not charge the shooter as he claimed self defense, saying Oliver was trying to bite him, but Harmon said there was no sign of any struggle or aggression from her dog.
“He didn’t have a mark on him,” Harmon recently told People. “He didn’t have a scratch; he didn’t have torn jeans. He didn’t have puncture marks. Most importantly, he didn’t ask for help. He says he was attacked multiple times by Ollie and that he had to kick him off. But he didn’t even ask for a Band-Aid or an ambulance.”
She also wrote on Instagram that her Ring doorbell camera was charging inside so she has no video of the incident, “which he saw & then knew he wasn’t being recorded.”
Making things even more bizarre, the man was also reportedly “shopping under a woman’s identity named Merle.”
The killing of their dog shocked and devastated Harmon and her family. “We are completely traumatized & beyond devastated at the loss of our beloved boy & family member,” Harmon wrote on Instagram, sharing photos of her late dog.
“To the man who took Ollie away from us: your actions are despicable and inexcusable,” she added in her Instagram stories. “You’ve not only robbed us of a beloved member of our family but you’ve also traumatized us beyond measure. The fact that someone could commit such a heartless act is beyond comprehension to me and I’m devastated that I didn’t get to say goodbye to him.”
Lawsuit
More than a month after Oliver’s killing, Harmon is pursuing some real-life Law & Order: she has filed a lawsuit against Instacart and the delivery driver, now identified as Christopher Anthoney Reid.
The suit, filed on Friday, alleges negligence, trespassing, infliction of emotional distress, and invasion of privacy, according to NBC News. She alleges that she heard the gunshot from upstairs and ran down fearing her children’s safety, and saw Reid “placing a gun in the front of his pants, potentially in his pant pocket.”
“It’s so unfathomable to think that there is somebody in your front driveway that just fired a gun,” Harmon told ABC News’ Juju Chang, via GMA. “And you don’t ever forget that sound.”
According to People, the lawsuit also says that Oliver was still alive after the gunshot, and rushed him to the vet, but he soon died. The suit also casts doubt on Reid’s self-defense claims, alleging that he was “not injured” or “seriously threatened” and had ample time to leave the property.
The family says that they have never had any incidents of Oliver being aggressive towards delivery drivers. “I order five Amazon packages a day, and it’s never been an issue,” Harmon’s daughter Avery told ABC News.
Instacart, the grocery delivery service named in the lawsuit, said they were “deeply saddened and disturbed to hear about this incident” last month.
“We have no tolerance for violence of any kind, and the shopper account was immediately suspended from our platform. We have been in direct contact with the customer and are cooperating with law enforcement on their investigation.”
Angie Harmon is speaking out about her decision to sue Instacart and a shopper after an alleged delivery incident ended in the death of her family dog, Oliver.https://t.co/tvsIWzg0tk
— Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) May 15, 2024
It’s truly unbelievable what happened to Angie Harmon’s dog Oliver, and we hope she and her family are able to get some justice after this shocking incident 😢
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