A popular teacher and basketball coach in North Carolina has died in a shootout with a Mexican drug cartel.
What We Know:
- Last week, Spanish teacher Barney Harris from the Union Academy in Monroe died in Alamance County for his involvement in drug trafficking. Harris and his brother-in-law, Steven Alexander Stewart Jr., were accused of robbing a potential “stash house” last Thursday.
- According to Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson, the stash house belonged to 18-year-old Alonso Beltra Lara, a member of one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world, the Jalisco New Generation cartel. Investigators suggest Harris and Stewart broke into Lara’s mobile home and waited for his return. During the confrontation, both Lara and Harris were shot and killed.
- Deputies responded to repeated calls of gunfire on the 1000 block of Wyatt Road in Green Level at around 1 a.m. When they arrived, Harris was pronounced dead after being shot multiple times despite wearing a bulletproof vest, gloves. Lara, whose hands and feet were bound, was shot twice in the back of the head and taken to a nearby hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
- During the investigation, authorities also seized five firearms, around $7,000 in cash, and 1.2 kilograms of cocaine. On Sunday, Stewart was arrested in his home in Wadesboro and charged with first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, and possession of a firearm by a felon.
He will be held in the Alamance County Jail without bond.
