Actress Angie Harmon filed a lawsuit against Instacart and one of its former shoppers who shot and killed his dog in March while delivering groceries to her home in North Carolina.
The lawsuit filed late last week in Mecklenburg County seeks to hold the shopper and Instacart liable for charges of trespassing, gross negligence, infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy, among other allegations . It accuses Instacart of engaging in negligent hiring, supervision, retention and misrepresentation. The suit seeks monetary damages, which will be determined at trial.
Instacart says the shopper has since been permanently banned from its platform.
Harmon is known for her work on television shows such as “Law & Order” and “Rizolli & Isles.” She told “Good Morning America” in an interview that aired Wednesday that it was “so inconceivable to think that there’s someone in your driveway who just fired a gun.”
“I think Instacart is more than responsible for all of this,” Harmon said in the interview. “This didn’t have to happen.”
According to the complaint, Harmon ordered an Instacart grocery delivery from a Charlotte store on March 30. The Instacart app showed a shopper named Merle with the profile picture of an older woman, with whom Harmon thought she was exchanging text messages about her order, the lawsuit says.
Later that day, Harmon was upstairs filling his squirrel feeders when a “tall, intimidating young man,” not an older woman, showed up to deliver the groceries, according to the lawsuit .
Harmon said she heard a gunshot and ran outside. She discovered her dog, Oliver, had been shot and saw the delivery man put a gun down the front of his pants, according to the suit. His teenage daughters, who were already outside, were said to be “in distress”. The dog died at the veterinarian’s office.
The customer told police he shot the dog after it attacked him, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police told media, adding that they had not filed criminal charges.
In an Instagram post last month about the encounter, Harmon wrote that the buyer “had no scratches or bites and his pants weren’t torn.”
Instacart says it immediately suspended the shopper after receiving the report of the shooting, then permanently fired him. The company says it conducts comprehensive background checks on buyers, prohibits them from carrying weapons, and has anti-fraud measures in place that include periodically requiring them to take a photo of themselves for verification. ensure that the person purchasing matches the photo recorded in their file.
“Our thoughts continue to be with Ms. Harmon and her family following this disturbing incident,” Instacart said in a statement. “While we cannot comment on pending litigation, we have no tolerance for violence of any kind, and the customer account has been permanently deactivated from our platform.”
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