Barney Dale Harris was a basketball coach and father of three, who is believed to have Killed into the residence at a mobile home park in Green Level, North Carolina, to steal drugs and money
Harris, along with a team of people, is believed to have broken into a trailer at a mobile home park in Green Level, North Carolina, to steal drugs and money, investigators said in a news release.
Age
He was 40 years old.
Incident Details
Alamance County is east of Greensboro along interstates 85 and 40 — 55 miles west of Raleigh and 115 miles from Charlotte.
Just before 1 a.m. on April 8, Alamance County 911 received multiple calls of shots fired at a mobile home on Wyatt Road in Green Level, the Sheriff’s Office said. Officers found two individuals with gunshot wounds.
According to Johnson, Harris was shot numerous times during what the sheriff described as an “old Western shootout” between two criminal enterprises, one of the enterprises being Harris and his brother-in-law. “Barney Dale Harris and his brother-in-law Steven Alexander Stewart Jr., had been tracking the activities of the Sinaloa cartel moving drugs from Mexico through North Carolina in order to find the group’s drug stash houses.”
Officers found Harris wearing a face cover, gloves, and a bulletproof vest, Johnson said.
Harris and his brother-in-law, Steven Alexander Stewart Jr. of Wadesboro, entered the home waiting for a cartel member to arrive so they could rob him of drugs and money, the sheriff said.
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When Alonso Beltran Lara arrived, he was taken outside, bound by his feet, and shot twice in the head, “execution-style,” according to Johnson, who described Lara as a cartel drug runner. Lara was alive when officers arrived and were pronounced dead at a hospital, the sheriff said.
Suspect Arrested
According to the sheriff, on Sunday, Stewart Jr., 32, was arrested and charged with first-degree burglary and first-degree murder. Stewart Jr. is being held without bond at the Alamance County Detention Center.
In August, Harris was charged in New Hanover County with a misdemeanor weapons charge related to carrying a concealed gun, public records show. At the time of his death, a court date was pending.
Investigation
At a news conference Wednesday, Johnson said officers found over 30 shell casings outside of the mobile home where Harris was killed and bullet holes in three other mobile homes.
“The trailer looked like it had been ransacked,” the sheriff said. “They were looking for money or drugs, or both.”
A bag containing 1.2 kilos of cocaine, about 2.6 pounds, and about $7,000 in cash also were found, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Johnson said he wasn’t surprised that Mexico’s most dangerous cartel had tried to set up shop in his county.
“The I-85 and I-40 corridor has caused Alamance County to be a great place to deposit their drugs,” he said, noting recent major-related drug busts by his officers.
Johnson warned that cartel members might seek vengeance for Lara’s death.
GoFundMe
A GoFundMe page for Harris’ wife and their three children has raised $23,130.
“He never met a stranger, and the encouragement and motivation he gave both his students and athletes was priceless,” according to the page.
