Angie Harmon is suing Instacart and a delivery driver who shot and killed her dog during a grocery delivery at her North Carolina home last month.
According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, the Law & Order and Rizzoli & Isles actress Angie Harmon filed a lawsuit against the delivery service and driver Christopher Anthony Reid for alleged trespassing, conversion, negligence, negligent supervision/hiring, invasion of privacy, and negligent misrepresentation. She is seeking over $25,000 in damages.
In the complaint, Angie Harmon claimed that while scheduling the delivery, she believed she was communicating with an older woman named “Merle.” Instead, Reid, described as “a tall and intimidating younger man,” had been “impersonating Merle on the Instacart app” and was the one who showed up to fulfill the order.
When Reid arrived, Harmon’s lawyers said she “heard what sounded like a gun shot” and “terrified for her children’s safety, Ms. Harmon immediately ran downstairs to determine to source of what she thought was a gun shot.”
Angie Harmon said she saw Reid “placing a gun in the front of his pants, potentially in his pant pocket. Looking to the side, she saw that her beloved dog, Oliver, was shot. Although shot, Oliver was still alive.”
Oliver, a German shepherd/beagle mix, died shortly after being rushed to the veterinarian’s office.
When police arrived and questioned Reid about the incident, he admitted that he shot the dog but claimed that it had attacked him and he acted in self-defense.
“The driver told officers that a dog attacked him while he was at the residence and that he defended himself by firing a single gunshot, striking and mortally wounding the dog. Another dog was present at the residence but did not attack,” the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said in a statement.
Although the investigation was closed without any criminal charges being brought, Harmon’s suit alleges that Reid was “not injured” or “seriously threatened” by the dog and had “ample opportunity” to leave the property safely without shooting the dog.
On Instagram last month, Angie Harmon wrote, “This Easter weekend a man delivering groceries for #Instacart shot & killed our precious Oliver. He got out of his car, delivered the food & THEN shot our dog. Our ring camera was charging in the house, which he saw & then knew he wasn’t being recorded.”
“The police let him go b/c he claimed ‘self defense.’ He did not have a scratch or bite on him nor were his pants torn. He was shopping under a woman’s identity named Merle … He shot our dog with my daughters & myself at home & just kept saying, ‘yeah, I shot your dog. Yeah I did.’ We are completely traumatized & beyond devastated at the loss of our beloved boy & family member.”
In an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America this week, Harmon said, “It’s so unfathomable to think there is somebody in your front drive way that just fired a gun. You don’t ever forget that sound. I heard my youngest screaming. I just heard her say, ‘Did you just shoot my dog?’ I was like, ‘What?'”
“I think Instacart is beyond responsible for all of this,” she added. “Like, this didn’t have to happen. And, you know, the damages that it has done to our family.”
In a statement, Instacart said, “Our hearts continue to be with Ms. Harmon and her family following this disturbing incident. While we cannot comment on pending litigation, we have no tolerance for violence of any kind, and the shopper account has been permanently deactivated from our platform.”