Actress Angie Harmon's Dog
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Actress Angie Harmon, known for her roles in “Law & Order” and “Rizzoli & Isles,” has shared a heart-wrenching account of her family’s dog being shot and killed by an Instacart delivery driver at her home in Charlotte, N.C. The incident, which Harmon described in a distressing Instagram post, has left her and her daughters “completely traumatized & beyond devastated.”

Incident Details

On the afternoon of March 30, while using the Instacart service for grocery delivery, Harmon alleges that the delivery driver, after dropping off the groceries, shot their dog Oliver and then openly admitted to the act in front of her and her daughters. According to Harmon, the driver claimed self-defense, yet she contests this assertion noting that the driver appeared unharmed without any signs of a dog attack.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department responded to the distress call at Harmon’s residence. According to the police, the delivery driver reported being attacked by the dog, prompting him to defend himself by firing a shot that resulted in the dog’s death. The police statement mentioned that no criminal charges have been filed and the case has been closed, with no further parties being sought after in the investigation.

Corporate Response

Instacart has expressed their deep disturbance over the incident, stating a zero-tolerance policy towards violence. The driver’s account has been suspended as they cooperate with the police investigation. Additionally, the company is in direct contact with Harmon, extending their cooperation and support.

Legal perspectives suggest potential civil claims for the family, including intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, given the traumatic nature of the incident. But with no charges forthcoming by police, it is unlikely a civil claim would get much traction. But the negative fallout to Instacart could be significant and will be worth watching if people fear their pets could be harmed by delivery people who feel threatened by the animals should one get loose or aggressive with a stranger.

 

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71 COMMENTS

  1. Wasn’t there, don’t know anyone that was, but I do have a couple of points. First, one man’s pet is another man’s menice. That’s one reason many people own dogs. Second, would you wait to be shot or stabbed while doing job before you defended yourself? Why would you wait until a dog had you on the ground to do the same? Finally, you know you have an imminent delivery. You placed the order. Why wouldn’t you confine the animal?

    • 99% chance this dog was not trying to bite this guy. Too many people who are afraid of dogs see a dog running at them and/or barking as attacking because they don’t know better. If you don’t know how dogs work then get out of delivery.

      • Nope, not even close. Dogs are animals, period. You might imagine that your dog is something other than an animal but it isn’t. There are myriad incidences of otherwise “harmless” pet dogs causing serious injury to family members much less the even larger number of times the animals harmed strangers. I don’t know your dog and have zero obligation to do so – it charges me and I’m in fear of injury I’m taking action. That’s why we arm ourselves, in order to equalize and/or be superior to a threat be it man or beast.

        And yes this is anecdotal but I have firsthand knowledge of two pet dogs, until the incident considered as gentle, harmless animals (both mixed breed “mutts” so no “dangerous breed” hooey involved) who viciously mauled two toddlers. The dogs belonged to members of the family, were on private property and under nominal control of their owners – something went terribly wrong and two little girls were permanently scarred – one now with partial hearing loss – in seconds, right before their mother’s eyes. Both animals were subsequently euthanized. If anyone there had been armed the injuries could’ve been much less severe.

        Dogs aren’t people, they’re animals, and any human life trumps the dogs’. Dogs must be considered incapable of making rational decisions so your dog, it’s safety and its actions are your responsibility, 100%, no exceptions, end of discussion. If your dog ends up dead because it threatened or harmed a human being that’s all on you – not the person defending themselves.

        • +1

          When I was a teenager, I was attacked by a large German Shepherd while visiting a family at their home with my mother. The dog and I had never seen each other, and nobody could explain what set the dog off to attack me. Did my face perhaps resemble that of a mean person who had recently thrown a rock at it, or such? Who knows. But as I approached to pet it, it lunged at me, took me to the ground, and jawed my face. The doctor who applied the necessary sutures told my mother I would have lost an eye if the dog’s teeth had been just 1/2″ in either of two directions as it bit me.

          The family was very apologetic, but swore up and down that ‘Ol Fido was gentle as a lamb and had never shown such aggressive behavior before in its entire life.

          Animals can be great companions, but at the end of the day they’re animals.

        • “Dogs are animals, period. You might imagine that your dog is something other than an animal but it isn’t.”

          *Legally*, you are correct. HOWEVER –

          The smart civil lawsuit attorney skilled in tugging at those heartstrings (with lots of pics and videos of Fang looking nothing but adorable) and looking for a plump payout will DEMAND a jury trial and have a very good chance of stacking the jury in his favor come the week of the trial.

          Admit it, you know I’m right on that one… 😉

        • I have been Attacked by dogs. I owned aggressive dogs. I know of dogs who have been put down because they are too aggressive and it was the right choice. I foster dogs. I good friends with an animal behaviorist. I work in a field that reviews analytical data that looks at the liabilities of dogs. I know dogs.

          If you have a fear of dogs and/or do not understand dogs you should not work in delivery or any jobs where you would be expect to run into dogs.

          I have no beef with a legit defense of self against any person or animal where life is threatened but 99% of the time with dogs that is not real. its a “he made a furtive movement” of the animal world.

        • Dogs are better than people…….and will be around long after humans are extinct.

          Humans murder, rape, rob, loot, waste their money on crap and trash out the planet….For Sport. Dogs do NONE of theat.

      • I know of a dog that looked very similar to the dog pictured and it bit a kid. However an armed adult who apparently was not bitten, scratched, etc. should have fired a safe warning shot. That said if an investigator can locate a witness or witnesses who overheard the driver complaining, etc. about dogs on his deliveries and the next one was going to get shot, etc. then the dog owner can perhaps win a Civil suit against the driver and instacart…IMO.

        • Debbie Dimwit,

          Like ALL of your advice, “fire a warning shot” is objectively STOOPID – ANY defensive use of a gun requires a “reasonable belief” that you are in danger of imminent serious injury or death. IF you are in reasonable fear of serious injury or death, you shoot to kill.

          Unlike idiots like you, MOST of us on here understand that firing a gun is NOT the same thing as posting a moronic, repetitive “comment” on this site. You are an example of why people find “reich-wing gun nuts’ objectionable, because there ARE, unfortunately, morons like you out there.

      • Zeeken,

        I am not a “dog expert”. I have owned two dogs a good chunk of my life and interacted with countless other dogs. I would like to think that I have a pretty good bead on dog behavior–especially non-friendly behavior. Both of my two dogs expressed a single instance each of aggressive behavior toward me. (Both times were instances of “resource guarding”.) One dog that a neighbor was pet sitting and who had wandered into my yard tried to bite me when I slowly and gently reached out to pet it. Another neighbor had large German Shepherds on the loose often who tried to attack me (and everyone else who happened by when they were at large) multiple times. I cannot count how many times dogs charged me aggressively. And no less than three other dogs (that I can remember off the top of my head) succeeded in biting me. Last but not least, my parent’s dog bit a cousin who was jogging past at a large family picnic. Oh, and I almost forgot about my good friend whose three year-old yellow lab turned on him after raising it from a puppy.

        The simple fact of the matter is that dogs are unpredictable and have amply demonstrated that they can and will bite/attack people. Given that simple fact, dog owners have a righteous and legal obligation to control their dogs–especially when the owners have invited strangers onto their property.

        Disclaimer: I am a dog lover and not afraid of dogs–including large and “dangerous” breeds. The dog that I have now is a “dangerous” breed.

      • i will never use them again and intend to tell all i know to do the same! she needs to go ahead and sue the hell out of them! this shooter needs to get out of this type of job! he stinks at it! p/s he smells like a hound!

      • wait – no derogatory name modifications, no “gfy”, no repeatitive “history lesson”, no turkish guns are great if you know how to perform your personal magic on them…..nothing ???
        I’m calling it – FAKE debbie

  2. Ah, perhaps having the family pet under positive control (as in, at the least, you have eyes-on confirmation of where they are), when expecting a delivery, might be a reasonable thing to consider?

    I know, not always practical, wonderful dog wouldn’t hurt a flea, et cetera. And I certainly wasn’t there. But, speaking as a pet owner, I don’t want my pets to be first-point-of-contact with anyone visiting us.

    • Exactly. If you are expecting deliveries keep your dog under control. Mine is in the back yard and only allowed in the front yard if the front gate is closed.

  3. Not enough details to make a judgement.
    Did the dog get out?
    Where was the shooter standing when he took the shot?
    Did the dog actually represent a clear and present danger to the shooter?

    • My thoughts exactly. Just not enough evidence to make a call.
      However, if the driver shot just to shoot, then hang his ass.
      Also, the owner should have had control of their dog, that is, if they didn’t.
      I have a yorkie, but I maintain control of her as small as she is because some folk are afraid of dogs no matter their size.

    • Come to think on it, he was lucky he was in Charlotte and not a rural area populated by pro-2ndA types like where I live.
      I would of popped him, with a long gun, and claimed self defense.

  4. You’d “think” a well-known actress would have video proof. I guess not. I’ve been bitten by a dog once while being invited in to sell windows, siding or I dunno.Tiny mutt. Now I ALWAYS have a pepper gel thingy & a knife as well as a gat.

    • Or she does and chose not to share since her “sweet pup” wasn’t exactly, and she is just looking for any kind of free publicity she can get, after all the kind of people who would hire her are not exactly known to be 2A friendly and tend toward emotional anyway.

      Just call me cynical…

    • All news sources these days suck s*. So called “journalists” sit on their a**es all day and just quote Xwitter or republish from other sources. The “journalists” are so baseline literate the articles are filled with grammar, punctuation and spelling errors. Even my local paper, part of the Gannett chain, suffers from the same problem, with error filled articles and an obvious communist/alphabet brigade bias. It’s f*ing appalling. William Safire is puking in his own grave.

      Web news sources these days are nothing more than information vacuums to sell your browsing history to advertisers. TTAG is no different.

  8. Just when you thought liberals could not get any more stupid – intervention cards….and…This is how a dystopian society unfolds.

  9. Just another entitled c* wailing at her own lack of responsibility. Today’s world is filled with this species. Move along, nothing new to see.

    • If the dog owner was Black johnny boy would stick around instead the bigot takes a pop at gender…again you prove yourself to be a pathetic pos johnny boy.

      • “Gender” is a grammatical term; in languages like German and Spanish words of have “gender.” People do not have “gender.” It was a communist that first applied the word “gender” to people in an effort to undermine traditional society. When we speak of “male” or “female” we are speaking of sex.

        You should quit speaking; you’re just proving why stereotypes are true, and present yourself as an example of the failings of the educational system. Look up the old quote from Mark Twain and follow his advice.

        In other words, shut your pie hole you dumb twat.

        • @ Johnny LeBlanc

          “‘Gender’ is a grammatical term; in languages like German and Spanish words of have ‘gender.’ People do not have ‘gender.’ It was a communist that first applied the word ‘gender’ to people in an effort to undermine traditional society. When we speak of ‘male’ or ‘female’ we are speaking of sex.”

          Hmmmm…

          First: The word ‘gender’ is a noun, and is not a grammatical term. It is in a subclass within a grammatical class of a language that is partly arbitrary but also partly based on distinguishable characteristics (such as shape, social rank, manner of existence, or sex) and that determines agreement with and selection of other words or grammatical forms.

          There is grammatical gender and sexual gender. Both are ‘gender’. I think this is where you got mixed up, it seems you are trying to mix the two, and have a little sex going on too.

          Second: The word ‘gender’ arose circa 1300 meaning “kind, sort, class, a class or kind of persons or things sharing certain traits” in Old French derived from the Latin stem ‘genus (genitive generis)’ meaning “race, stock, family; kind, rank, order; species,” AND also also male or female sex. The ‘male-or-female’ sex sense of the word arose in English in the 15th century. As sex took on erotic qualities in the 20th century ‘gender’ came to be the usual English word for “sex of a human being”.

          Third: The word ‘gender’ can be used as a verb. Its use as a verb arose in late 14th century from the Old French ‘gendrer, genrer’ meaning “engender, beget, give birth to,” and came from the Latin ‘generare’ meaning to ‘engender, beget, produce’

          When we speak of ‘male’ or ‘female’, it is ‘gender’ OR ‘sex’ (sexual gender), because either represents the state of being male or female, only being distinguished respectively based on biological ‘sexual gender’ as female or male on the basis of their reproductive organs and structures.

          Humans do indeed have a ‘gender’, its born biologically either male or female.

          ‘gender’ used as a ‘sexual identity’ or ‘gender identity’ contrary to that born biologically is a completely different matter. Its concept arose in the 14th century as ‘re-gender’ (‘regender’) meaning “beget again, make or create afresh” (a now obsolete term its self as the word, but the concept bought forth to modern day with the term ‘gender dysphoria’)

          So people don’t have ‘gender’ they have what we call today sex. It was a kinda silly thing to say. But you can’t say that because people have sex (as in bumping uglies) and not ‘gender’ that when we speak of “male” or “female” we are speaking of sex. To the contrary, when we speak of “male” or “female” we are definitely speaking of ‘gender’.

        • “The ‘male-or-female sex’ sense of the word is attested in English from early 15c. As sex (n.) took on erotic qualities in 20c., gender came to be the usual English word for ‘sex of a human being,’ in which use it was at first regarded as colloquial or humorous. Later often in feminist writing with reference to social attributes as much as biological qualities; this sense first attested 1963. Gender-bender is from 1977, popularized from 1980, with reference to pop star David Bowie.”

  13. According to other stories I have read about this incident, the driver was not an actual instacart driver but using an actual drivers account. It hasn’t been determined why he was doing this of if the actual account owner was cooperating. Either way it was fraudulent.

  15. The dog in the heading pic looks like my girlfiends dog. She was a good dog, boiled with hot peppers and served up with rice noodles.
    We were sorry when she was gone.

  16. I have to agree with some of the comments. Never trust an animal, no matter how docile it usually is.

    Animals have personalities just like humans. They range all over the map from docile to extremely aggressive which is both dependent on their individual genetic makeup as well as their past experience – just like humans.

    As a kid, they used to tell us “don’t bother the bees, and the bees won’t bother you.” In reality, it’s up to the bee to decide when he’s being bothered. I prefer not to leave the decision to the animal.

    I read where a guy who owned a chimpanzee pissed the chimpanzee off one day and it ripped his balls off (which is one way chimps fight.)

    Never trust an animal who can do any sort of serious damage to you. Pets only like you until they don’t – just like humans.

  17. I went to a house today where people were expecting me. Two large dogs came to my vehicle as soon as I pulled up. I waited until the owner came out (despite taking a long time) before exiting my vehicle. You never know.

  18. There was a mean dog here who chased everyone. Even the cops veehickle( that was funny, she was trying to rip his bumper off) anyway people whacking at her with sticks, one guy came back with a pellet gunm and shot the dog in her own yard while she was leashed. Another guy had nunchucks, the dog is raising hell, he said I dont like being intimidated. I said “I’ll show you how to handle that dog.” Went in the house and came back with a hamburger bun soaked in bacon grease.
    She still barks at me, false charges, snapping, snarling, all the time waiting on that puppy treat.

  20. When I worked for the FD in the hood, there were a lot of large aggressive dogs . Many times while responding to a home for an EMS call, we’d ask that the large growling dog be locked in another room prior to us coming in and working on a family member .

    Many times they’d rather argue with us about how good the dog was , while the family member layed there.

  21. went into their backyard territory everyday for nine years. 14k yards per month, close to a thousand poochikins. other than a dogo (they’re weird, turn their back on you) they all exhibit the same body language cues in the same order, not unpredictable at all. fear biters are comin’ in as soon as you turn your back, in pairs there’s not much you can do if they flank you. there was a st. bernard i couldn’t reason with, some giant white terrier like an airedale or giant schnauzer but white… too big for a wheaton, the notes for that yard said “bruce is immune to spray.” and indeed he had an orange muzzle; i hated the idiots who sprayed dogs. maybe one more i couldn’t get past.

  22. My Golden Doodle is smarter than most people I met as a cop. I’d fix that chicken schitt M F had it been my doggy!

  23. Why was a pet left alone with a delivery driver?

    If he had to “admit to it” and “appeared unharmed” then the owners obviously didn’t witness the interaction of dog and deliverer.

    Sounds like the real problem is the owner.

    • MLee,

      SAME!! I have been bitten by dogs (twice), but . . . never “by surprise”. If you read dog behavior, there are ALWAYS “warning signs”. While there are dogs that are just plain crazy (just like people; witness MajorMistake and Debbie Dimwit), even crazy dogs exhibit behaviors that warn a knowledgeable person to be wary. 99.9% of “bad behavior” in dogs is caused by bad rearing by humans.

      Humans don’t deserve dogs, and, unfortunately, far too many dogs don’t deserve the humans they were saddled with.

  25. I always put my 8 pound Havanese dog into the bedroom so she will not lick the delivery driver too much when he brings in the groceries. I can see why some people are afraid of some types of dogs which are unruly and not trained. I already lost good relations with a good neighbor across the street when his mongrel dog was attacking some people in a block party that we had last summer. I pulled a knife in readiness, but the owner quelled the dog before there was only any altercation. The owner never mentioned the altercation, in fact he never talked to me again!

  27. Driver SMELLED like groceries…..DUH!!! Dog might have licked driver to death.

    Driver should have anticipated being rushed by grocery smelling dogs. Maybe should have been armed with bear/pepper spray at most.

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