A beloved high school basketball coach turns out to be more than just a basketball coach. He is found dead in what appears to be the aftermath of him trying to rob a Mexican drug cartel.
Coach Barney Dale Harris, was a beloved basketball coach at Union Academy Charter School. The Daily Beast reported:
Students and parents alike joined in mourning the sudden death of a popular high school basketball coach earlier this week in Monroe, North Carolina. They fondly recalled his uplifting “all love, no fear” motto, the “encouragement and motivation” he gave to students at his school, and his smile that “will forever remain etched in our hearts.”
But two days later, the local sheriff dropped a bombshell: teacher Barney Dale Harris had died while allegedly trying to rob a Mexican drug cartel.
The Bleacher Report noted that Harris planned to rob their local Mexican drug cartel:
The Alamance County Sheriff’s Office alleges that Harris and his brother-in-law, 32-year-old Steven Alexander Stewart Jr., went to a stash house with the intent to steal drugs and money from the cartel, per Hank Lee and Briana Harper of WCNC Charlotte.
The Sheriff’s Office alleges that Harris and Stewart Jr. broke into the home and waited for someone to arrive before the robbery, per Joe Marusak of the Charlotte Observer.
Alonso Beltran Lara, an 18-year-old who allegedly worked as a drug runner for the cartel, then walked inside where Harris and Stewart allegedly bound and gagged him before shooting him twice in the back of the head outside the house.
Stewart has since been arrested and charged with first-degree murder, first-degree burglary and possession of a firearm by a felon, according to WBTV.
Per Marusak, Johnson said that an “old Western shootout” soon erupted between “two criminal enterprises,” one represented by Harris and Stewart Jr. and the other being the cartel. Harris was shot and killed during that gunfire and was found dead inside a bedroom in the house.
Juan Daniel Salinas Lara is wanted in connection with the case, per WBTV. He also has active warrants for cocaine trafficking.
