Come again?
What in the blue hell is going on?
This is insane.
Barney Harris was the basketball coach at Union Academy in Monroe where he was well-loved and respected, but Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson said there was another side to Harris that most people didn’t see — one that was involved in the dangerous and deadly drug world.
Channel 9 learned Harris and his brother-in-law Steven Alexander Stewart went to a mobile home park on Wyatt Road in Green Level, North Carolina in the early morning hours of April 8 to steal money and drugs from the Sinaloa New Generation Cartel’s stash house.
When they got there, deputies said they found Harris with several gunshot wounds in a bedroom. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators said 18-year-old Alonso Beltran Lara, who was a member of the cartel, was also found with gunshot wounds. Deputies said his feet were bound and his arms were tied behind his back. He was taken to a hospital where he later died.
Investigators said Harris and Stewart broke into a trailer and Lara showed up while they were inside. Deputies said the men questioned Lara about the stash and when he didn’t give them the answers they wanted, they shot him in the head.
“And they were trying to find the money and drugs and apparently he didn’t give them the information to do that and he was technically close range, two bullets to the back of the head, he was executed,” Johnson said.
Johnson said after the pair killed Lara, other members of the cartel showed up and Harris was killed in the gunfire that followed.
WOW.
Once the cartel arrived a full-fledge John Wick style shootout took place. Harris had a bulletproof vest on, but the cartel had armor-piercing bullets and that is what did him in. His brother-in-law was able to escape, but has since been arrested on first degree murder charges.
Not coach Harris!!!
The is now in shambles and thinks the Cartel is going to come looking for revenge.
Harris was hired by Union Academy Charter School in July 2017 as a high school Spanish teacher and served as the head coach for the varsity men’s basketball team and varsity men’s track team.
“It’s just hard to understand,” Johnson said. “The fact that someone like Mr. Harris, who apparently had a pretty good life as a teacher and a coach wound up in this type of crime.”
Johnson said he is concerned that the shootout could lead to a drug war with the cartel seeking revenge against Harris’ loved ones.
“I’ll tell you right now, as sheriff I’m still worried about some retaliation because Mexican cartels — they don’t forget. They’re going to pay someone back somewhere,” he said.
The story even gets crazier if you can believe it.
Flip the page for news video of the full breakdown on what went down..