A North Carolina teacher was shot and killed as he and his brother-in-law allegedly attempted to rob a drug cartel.
Barney Harris, the basketball coach and Spanish teacher for Union Academy, and his brother-in-law Steven Stewart allegedly broke into a mobile home park on April 8 with the intent to steal money and drugs from the Sinaloa New Generation Cartel’s stash house, police said.
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Alonso Beltran Lara, 18, interrupted the burglary, and the men questioned him and tied him up before shooting him in the head, detectives said, according to WSOC-TV.
Police have said they believe Harris, Stewart, and Lara worked for different “criminal enterprises,” according to a press release from the local sheriff’s office.
“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,” said Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson.
Other members of the gang returned, and a firefight ensued, police said. Harris was killed in the fight.
“Mr. Harris, he had a bulletproof vest on, but it did not work with the kind of ammunition that was used,” Johnson said. “He had gloves on, and he, they went there to do what was done except they did not think it was going to backfire on them.”
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Officers seized five firearms, about $7,000 in cash, and 1.2 kilograms of what they believe to be cocaine.
Stewart was arrested and charged with first-degree burglary, first-degree murder, and possession of a firearm by a felon.
Harris, a father of three, had been employed at the school since July 2017.
