Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Amazon Driver Shoots Dog and Avoids Charges, Owner Demands Answers

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

Rose Kirk was enjoying a quiet Sunday with her children at her home in Hueytown, Alabama when an Amazon driver shot her beloved dog, Solar. Adding insult to injury, the driver had stopped at the wrong house. Now Kirk is planning legal action. Law&Crime's Angenette talks with Kirk and her lawyer, Travis McCormick, about how the shooting has impacted her family in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show that delves into the biggest stories in crime.Host: Angenette Levy - https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Rose KirkGuest: Travis McCormick - https://twitter.com/FirmMccormickhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/help-solar-have-a-safe-recoveryCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Everyone is suffering right now. All of us are suffering right now. A woman's dog shot right outside of her home by an Amazon delivery driver. The entire thing caught on camera by her home security system. You shot right up here by my front door. That was reckless. Where's the mace? Rose Kirk and her children are reeling. They were feet away as the driver fired that shot. I'm Anjanette Levy. It's Monday and this is Crime Fix. It's been just over a week since that Amazon driver shot Rose Kirk's dog, Solar, at her house in Hueytown,

Alabama. If it wasn't bad enough that the driver shot Solar, Kirk says she wasn't even expecting an Amazon delivery. She hadn't ordered anything. The driver, when he approached her front porch, was at the wrong house. Kirk says her two dogs, Solar and Lunar, the littermates she adopted as puppies, were on tie-outs on her porch when the driver shot Solar with a.45 caliber handgun. The shooting was recorded by Kirk's home camera system. The Hueytown Police Department posted on Facebook, as the delivery driver approached the porch of the residence to deliver the package, a dog came out from under the porch. It was reported that the dog was being very aggressive and charged at the delivery driver. The driver, who was armed,

fired a single shot at the dog in an attempt to get away. But that's not actually what the video shows. If you watch, the dogs are sitting in chairs on the front porch. The delivery driver has his hand in his pocket, reaching for the gun before the dogs jump out of their chairs and run toward the driver. It's then that the driver fires at Solar, which we aren't going to show you. Solar and Lunar then run back to the porch and then Solar limps away before collapsing by the front door. Hueytown police declined to file charges, stating there was nothing more to this investigation rather than a delivery driver attempting to before collapsing by the front door. Hueytown police declined to file charges, stating, there was nothing more to this investigation rather than a delivery driver attempting to defend himself.

I've reached out to Hueytown police for comment about this discrepancy between the video and the statement, and I've also reached out to the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office to see whether the DA signed off on charges not being filed. At the time of this recording, neither the police department nor the DA signed off on charges not being filed. At the time of this recording, neither the police department nor the DA's office had responded to our request for more information about why charges were not filed in this case. For its part, an Amazon spokesperson told Law & Crime,

we are in touch with the customer and we've reached out to Hueytown police as they investigate. The driver involved is no longer delivering packages for Amazon. Amazon also says it's against their policies for delivery drivers to carry weapons, but delivery associates and Amazon Flex delivery partners are free to carry dog deterrent devices as long as they stick to state and local laws. The driver is no longer delivering packages for Amazon, according to a spokesperson. Joining me to discuss solar being shot is solar's owner. She is Rose Kirk and her lawyer, Travis McCormick. Rose, I want to start first of all by telling you how sorry we are that this happened. Bring us up to speed about how Solar is doing. Thank you so much for having me.

Solar, he's making progress. Currently at the moment, he's not at home with us. He's still under the care of the physician. But we are hoping and praying that he can come home to us soon. But there has been a good prognosis thus far that he's still alive. He is still alive and he's a fighter. He's fighting and he fought for his life. He's very strong and I am so, so very proud of Solar. But he's not with us here at the moment. So we're just keeping the prayers going up and hopefully Solar will return to us soon. And it's been a week or so since he's been under 24 hour a day veterinary care. So take us back to the day when he was shot by the Amazon driver.

I just I'm a dog owner. I just can't even imagine. Well, on on the day that Solar was shot, it was an evening, of course, around 530 that evening. So the sun had already fallen. We were all inside the home, myself, including my children, all of my children, two of my children were with me in the living room, like right next door, close to where the gun fire. But I had my blinds open. So I noticed, I saw a truck pull up, the van. I did notice the van

pull up. And I asked one of my sons well I said we see an amazon van well it was really one of those contracted looking vans so but they normally come by and drop off packages or whatnot but I know I had not ordered anything um I was not even expecting a order in order um so I asked my son well well, what is the driver? Has the driver gone out yet? Because he pulled right up in front of my home. And my son said, well, no, he hasn't gone out yet. So he never, it took him a long, very long time to get out of the van. So we went back to doing our normal day. I was, you know, just, we were all in the, I was going through, I think some, some clothes, sorting through some clothes, folding some clothes, you know, getting ready for the work week. Right. Just doing what moms do on a Sunday.

Yes. Yes. But before that, we had just put Solar and Lunar outside on the porch to get some fresh air. They had been out inside practically all day long. We had just taken them outside to get some fresh air. They were sitting, both sitting in their normal seats. And so, you know, as I'm folding up the clothes, the next thing I hear is I heard like one bark. I did hear a bark and I heard some heavy movement on my porch. I'm assuming that was the chair that Solar jumped out of. And then I heard the gunshot. I heard a loud pop, a loud gunshot. So when that happened, me and all of my children, we scattered, like we immediately dropped down on the floor.

I was thinking that someone was trying to kick in my door and actually come in my home to a home invasion. That's the first thing that hit my mind because I'm like, I, who could it be? And, you know, it was an off-brand truck. So, and I never ordered a package. I never ordered a package. I was not expecting a package. And normally when I do order packages or items from any seller vendor, I would always put my dogs on the back. We have a gated fence in the back. I will always either bring them on the inside or I will put them in the back. So when did you realize that Solar had been shot? Well, I realized when he had been shot was when, okay, all, all of our kids, we, we, we, we dropped, we got down.

My first priority was my children. I wanted to make for sure they were protected. I told them to crawl to a safe place and let me handle with, you know, whatever I have to face at this front door. So when I opened the front door, when I finally opened the front door, I'm still low. And that's when I noticed, I saw my dog, I saw Solar right at the door trying to hurry up and come in and I saw the blood. And I'm like, oh my God. And that, you know, this guy has shot my dog. He shot my dog, you know, and my dog was on the porch. We had just took him outside to get some fresh air. Travis, you are now representing Rose. So what are you going to do?

What are you helping her with? What do you hope to accomplish? Well, to that effect, as Rose just said, a lot of this is going to be about, one, finding out some questions finding out answers to some questions that uh obviously both of us have but she and i have um and at the end of the day it's about holding the proper people accountable for what happened last sunday um you know to the to that effect it's you know that that's someone's home um there's a sanctity about your home and um you know you know, and, and, and look, we give up a little bit of that because of the digital world that we live in with the door dashes and the Amazon deliveries and things like that, you know, but there is still some

sanctity to, to the safety of your home. That's where you come home to be with the family and people that you love the most and the pets you love the most. And that's where we all should feel safe. And I think for Ms. Kirk and her family and for, I know we can't speak for himself, but for Solar, I mean, all of that has obviously changed. To Ms. Kirk's point, I've watched over the video multiple times and I have a lot of questions about, you know, what was going on in that young man's head. Obviously, I'm not a mind reader. None of us are. But we look forward to finding out those answers and trying to make sure that those involved are accountable for their actions and to ensure that, number one, that this doesn't happen again, that somebody else's home isn't violated in the way that Ms. Kirk's was and that her pet, nobody else's pets are violated the same way.

I'm like you. I'm like Ms. Kirk. I'm a dog owner. I'm a pet lover in general. And you hate to see these things happen. So at the end of the day, Ms. Kirk and I will continue to dig and look to hold those people involved in this accountable.

And again, like I said, make sure this just doesn't happen to anybody else. Rose, you're a mom. Your children were home. You were home with your children when this happened. Guns are loud. This is a.45 caliber handgun. Your dog

is shot. Your kids had to have been just freaked out. Terrified. How are your kids doing? It's PTSD. I'm sorry, but everyone is suffering right now. All of us are suffering right now. Every time we see a van pull up, we're thinking someone is going to come up to the house and shoot. Everyone is suffering right now. My children have not, they're trying to cope and I'm trying to help them cope. I'm trying to cope. And it has affected me. It has affected my daily living, you know, and it has affected my children in several ways. We're just praying. I'm a prayerful person. And I believe that God does work miracles like he did with Solar,

because Solar could have been gone. The prognosis was very bad in the beginning. We prayed, we prayed. Solar, even though he's, you know, it's a long road to recover for him. He's not with us right now. He's still fighting and trying to be strong. Um, you know, it's, we're, we're coping the best way that we only know how, um, right now we're coping the best way that we only know how. Right now we're, we're trying to take it one day at a time. We're trying to take our attention off of what has happened and to put more of our attention and energy on the future and on the,

the positiveness and on how we can, how we can allow this situation or use this situation to make a change to where like my attorney stated, you know, so this won't happen to anyone else, to no other family. I want some good to come out of this. Yes, I want this gentleman to be held accountable. I really do. Because, um, what if that would have been one of us to walk up to the door? I don't know.

If you look at the video, he casually just pulled the gun out and shot my dog. Rose, Amazon is a huge, huge company. Has anybody from the company reached out to you to offer an apology? Even if it was a contractor, they were still working for Amazon. Well, when it initially happened, Amazon, basically we got the phone hung up in our face. When we were in the emergency room fighting for fighting for solar, we got Amazon, basically they were hanging phones up in our face. We had to continue to call back. And when we did call back, we were connected to

an outsource. I think someone in another country, we couldn't even understand what they were saying to us. So some days after, I don't know if it had hit the news outlets, that's when someone reached out to us from Amazon. And they told us that they would do all that they can to do all what they can to help solar live. Rose Kirk, of course, has legal representation and plans to take some type of legal action. She's also started a GoFundMe page to help pay for solar's veterinary care. So the vet bills, the vet bills have to be just through the roof. I mean, obviously, you know, I think if any of us were in your situation, I mean, if this happened to my dog, I would be doing the same thing. I would say, well, do whatever you have to do, you know,

save my dog. Right. And it sounds like you're saying the prognosis is good. So, but this is going to cost a lot of money. I mean, your, your dog is still in the hospital 24 hours a day. Uh, Travis, you know, I'm assuming you're going to be telling Amazon pay up. Yeah. I mean, absolutely. I mean, and it goes even further than just the bills. There's, there's, there's more to this than just the pure monetary aspect of of solar's care um and and what's needed to be done to get him back to to health so that he can come home and be with with the miss kirk and the rest of the family there there's emotional trauma that's tied to this i mean you can hear it in her voice and and things of that that nature that it there's a new normal now, if that makes any sense.

And that there was their home before, you know, 5, 6 p.m., Sunday, February 4th, 2024. And then there's post-event. It's that new normal. Like she's saying, she's on her toes. She's apprehensive with delivery drivers now. There's that violation that somebody's got to be held accountable for that. And that's why I said it's bigger than just a vet bill. This is bigger than just a vet bill. There's a lot more to this when you get into these situations. Um, because I mean, I know in the eyes of the law, our pets are property, but our pets are not property to us

as it relates to our emotional bonds to them. That's our family. I mean, I've seen grown men weep when they lose a pet, when they lose a dog or something like that, because you get these animals who become a part of your life for, you know, eight, 10, 12, 15 years, they become part of your children's lives. They grow up with your children and things of that nature. And then to have an event like this and have an incident like this happen, um, to Ms. Kirk and then to Ms. Kirk's children. Again, it goes back to what I said when we first started with this, there has to be accountability for that. So Rose, does the vet think that Solar is going to be able to come home eventually as he continues to heal under the vet's care? Well, yes, eventually, yes. Solar will be able to join us again, but just not right now. That's the thing that we're all waiting on. He's

still under the vet's care, and the vet has advised that he continues to be under his care at the moment. So one day, will Solar come home to be with us? according to the vet but when that will be i don't know and solar has a sister right uh travis was telling me there's lunar as well so yes um and you know dogs can be very close you know they can be i mean they're they're litter mates right they're brother and sister so uh is lunar showing any effects of this is she kind of looking like kind of like where where where'd he go where where is he yes excuse me she's she's very sad. She hides.

Me and my daughter, Sashi, we were talking about that. She comes in the house and she has this place where she hides now. She's afraid. This took place in front of her. This guy came on the porch and shot her brother in front of her. This guy came on the porch and shot her brother in front of her. I had Lunar and Solar since they were puppies. I got them from the Greater Birmingham Humane Society. The story behind those two was out of several puppy litters. I think I was like 13, maybe 13 or 12 puppies. All of the puppies had been separated and gone into different homes.

When I approached, the lady at the shelter told me that those were the last two, Solar and Lunar. So I didn't want to separate them. They Lunar. So I didn't want to separate them. They were little puppies. I didn't want to separate them. So I said, I want both of them because I've always grown up with dogs. When I was a little girl, my father used to have, I've always grown up with pets. So I've always been a pet lover. So as an adult with my children, I like pets and my children even grown to love pets. Pets are a part of our family. They are family. And over the years, we've had them for seven years. They've grown up together. They're like glue. Solar and Lunar has done everything together, everything together.

They have never been separated like this. This is the longest that Solar has been away from all of us. All of us miss Solar. She's sad. There's a difference. She is sad. And Rose, I'm assuming you were shocked when the Hueytown Police Department said that there would be no charges for the Amazon driver. Yes, because the only thing I wanted them to do was investigate a little bit further. Yes, I was very shocked. And that's the main thing. I was very upset when they told me that they weren't going to pursue charges against the Amazon driver because they said he was doing his job of delivering packages. And I tried to tell them I never had any packages. I never ordered any packages. I was not expecting any packages. The Amazon,

and even if I was expecting a package, if I know I'm expecting a package, my dogs would never be on the front porch. They would always either be on the inside of the home or either on the back, um, in, in a gated fence, you know, where they can't get out. Um, and I wanted them to investigate a little bit further. You know, they watched the video and I told them, you know, if you look at the video, both of my dogs were sitting down. The gentleman began pulling out while my dogs were still sitting down. My dogs, both of them were still sitting down. When Solar saw him pull out his gun, if you look at the video, everyone can see it. That's when he jumped out his chair at the guy.

But the guy started pulling out his gun even before my dog even rushed at him. And he was slowly on my porch. He was slowly approaching my porch. To me, it seems like he was provoking my dogs. He provoked them. He saw both of them. If you notice dogs on a porch that they're both sitting down, the time that he had to look around, he was looking to the left, looking to the right. That was enough time for him to back off or get away then. Um, you know, if I should say, you know, and both of the dogs were on chains, both of them were on leashes. So that's another

thing that, that really hurts me, you know, for, for my dog to be shot and, and he was on a leash. My dog was shot and he was, he was leashed up and he still was shot. So I, like I say, I mean, I have so many questions, you know, that I, that I may never get the answers for, but, you know, it just really, it really doesn't, all of this, none of this really makes sense to me, you know? Yeah, so I really wanted, you know, the Hueytown Police Department to investigate this a little bit further, look into some things, subpoena some phone records, do whatever they have to do, find out, did this delivery driver just become an Amazon delivery driver? Who in the neighborhood did he have to deliver to? I have questions like, where did he

have to deliver to? Was it my neighbor? Because he never left the package. He never left the package over my neighbor's house. There was no package. Where's the package? What was the package? What was the order? I have several questions. I have so many questions for this guy not to have been charged with at least animal cruelty. There were occupants inside of the home, children. You know, you just can't come over someone's house and recklessly shoot. He shot right up here by my front door.

That was reckless. Where's the mace? Where's your mace? Why did you have to pull out a.45 and shoot a dog right here next to someone's door? That was so no thought. He gave it no thought. Like he's, he's like, that's his life to me. Like that's the life that he lives. Well, Rose Kirk, I hope we can help you get some of these answers. Travis, thank you for joining us as well. We appreciate it. And we hope

that we can help spread the word about this and maybe help get some answers for you. And we wish you the best with Solar. Thank you. Thank you for having me. And that's it for this edition of Crime Fix on Monday, February 12th, 2024. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you back here tomorrow.

Until then, have a great night. You can download Crime Fix on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your favorite podcasts and new episodes post each weeknight at 6 Eastern time on Law and Crime's YouTube channel. Daniel Camacho does our video editing. Our head of social media is Bobby Zoki. Our senior director of social media is Vanessa Vine. Savannah Williamson is one of our producers. Diane Kay and Alyssa Fisher book our guests. And Brad Mabey is our audio editor.