ALAMANCE COUNTY, NC – According to the sheriff of Alamance County, a popular teacher and coach in Union County was killed during a shootout with a Mexican drug cartel last week.
[ IMAGES: Union County teacher, coach killed in shootout with drug cartel ]
Barney Harris was the basketball coach at Union Academy in Monroe, where he is much loved and respected, but Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson said Harris has another side that most people have not seen – one that involves was at the dangerous and deadly drug world.
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Channel 9 reports that Harris and his associate Steven Alexander Stewart went to a garage park in Alamance County last Thursday to steal money and drugs from cartel members.
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According to Johnson, Harris and Stewart shot dead an 18-year-old member of the cartel and then shot at other members of the cartel.
Harris died in gunfire.
“Mr. Harris, he’s wearing a bulletproof vest, but it does not work with the kind of ammunition used,” Johnson said. “He was wearing gloves, and he, they went there to do what was done. “except they did not think it would fall on them.”
Johnson said Stewart, who is from Wadesboro, survived the shooting and was arrested. He is charged with armed robbery and murder.
Harris was appointed by the Union Academy Charter School in July 2017 as a Spanish teacher in high school and was head coach for the varsity men’s basketball team and the men’s varsity men’s team.
>> The sheriff told reporter Mark Becker that this shocking crime is just part of the frightening leap in drug trafficking they saw up and down I-85. We will tell more about this evolving story on Channel 9 at 17:00