Authorities say a beloved North Carolina teacher was killed in a shootout with members of a Mexican drug cartel. His friends and family are stunned that he was apparently mixed up with them.

• Authorities said a North Carolina teacher died in a gunfight with Mexican cartel members.
• The sheriff said Barney Dale Harris and his brother-in-law killed a drug runner for the cartel.
• People who knew the high-school teacher said they're in disbelief.

Everyone in Monroe, North Carolina, knew Barney Dale Harris. They said that whether on the basketball court, in the classroom, or at church, he was always talking to someone, cracking a joke, and breaking out into his signature big smile.

"All love, no fear" was the motto of the 40-year-old Spanish teacher and father of three, who was known for his commitment to his students, his dedication to his job, and his love for his family.

So when news broke that he died, in the early morning of April 8, the community went into mourning. A GoFundMe page set up for Harris' family described him as a "great man of God" who "touched the lives of everyone he encountered."

The Union Academy Charter School, where he'd worked since 2017, issued a statement saying it was "shocked and devastated." The school held a vigil for Harris on its football field, WB TV reported. Instagram photos showed dozens of students, parents, and teachers lighting candles in his honor.

Days later the community was struck again by more shocking news. Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson announced on April 14 that Harris had died in a shootout with Mexican cartel members after he tried to steal money and drugs from a "stash house" in a trailer park 100 miles from where he lived.

Authorities said Harris was found dead in a ransacked mobile-home bedroom wearing a bullet-proof vest, gloves, and a face covering - and that he'd been shot several times.

In the moments leading up to Harris' death, Sheriff Johnson said, the teacher and his brother-in-law Steven Alexander Stewart Jr. had tied up an 18-year-old cartel member, who lived in the trailer, and shot him twice in the back of the head "execution-style." The man, believed to be a drug runner, died in the hospital, Sheriff Johnson said.

"All of the past revered praise that had been posted from the time he died until the shocking news was released was suddenly scrubbed from the internet," Meg Darling, a friend of Harris, told Insider.

The GoFundMe page, which as of April 16 had raised more than $23,000 in donations, was shut down.

The Head of Union Academy Charter School, John Marshall, said it had quickly shifted from mourning to protecting students and staff. "The Barney Harris that so many here knew and loved was a very different person than the man we hear about in recent news reports," he said, NPR News reported.

As with others in the community, Darling said she was left stunned with the news casting Harris as a villain.

'We are trying to move forward. This is a hard time for us.'

From a very young age, Harris was the kind of guy who could light up a room, people who knew him said. With a big smile and a confident demeanor, the Charlotte native got along with everybody.

Darling, who went to school with Harris, described him as a "gregarious" boy who "never had a bad thing to say about anyone."

"Barney was someone who always had it together," she said. "He was ambitious and driven."

Harris married his college sweetheart, Keisha Rogers, in 2006, four years after graduating with a degree in business administration from Wingate University. They had three children together. (Harris' wife declined to be interviewed for this article, but she told Insider: "We are trying to move forward. This is a hard time for us.")

The 40-year-old teacher was a proud family man and often posted pictures of his wife and children on Facebook, celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, and graduations.

As a teacher he was held in high esteem. One former student, whom Harris taught Spanish when she was in the 10th grade, told Insider he was like a "father figure" at school. (The student asked that her name not be used.)

"I would pass by his classroom on the way to lunch, and there was not a time that I didn't see students in his classroom either talking, praying, laughing, or studying for a test," she said. "I think that showed so much about his character and his willingness to help those who needed someone to lean on."

The last time the former student saw Harris, she said, was the opening night of her high-school play.

"He had bought every one of us in the play flowers, whether we were in his class or not," she said. "Just seeing that someone did support us and cheer us on in their own special way warmed my heart."

As with others, the former student said she was confused after the news of his death broke. She told Insider that Harris' character didn't match up with what he was reported to have done.

In the early-morning hours of April 8, a car pulled into a trailer park in Green Level, North Carolina, in Alamance County, Sheriff Johnson said. He said Harris and his brother-in-law Stewart had been "tracking" members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel to scope out where they hid their drug profits. The duo had previously visited the area, about a two-hour drive from Monroe, phone records show.

Authorities said the two men were armed when they entered a mobile home described as a "stash house" for the cartel. Nobody was home at the time, but phone records show that Harris waited in the trailer for 20 minutes, until its owner, Alonso Beltran Lara, a cartel member, returned.

"The trailer looked like it had been ransacked looking for any money, drugs, or both," Sheriff Johnson said in a press conference. On Lara's arrival, the sheriff added, Harris and Stewart Jr. tied Lara's arms and legs and shot him twice in the back of the head.

What ensued was an "old Western shootout," Sheriff Johnson added, as a gang of cartel members - including Lara's brother Juan Daniel Salinas Lara - arrived.

More than 30 rounds were fired and several mobile homes were left with bullet holes. In the trailer park, residents awoken up by the gunfire called 911 and took cover.

"The neighbors are shooting and the bullets are hitting over here near our trailer," one worried man said, dispatch calls published by WSPA said. "It hit the window of one of our rooms."

Another man called in after he said he'd heard gunshots outside his home. "I heard a vehicle coming through, sounding maybe like a big truck, and they just opened fire," he said, WNAP reported.

"So I jumped in the house, in the trailer, and got on the floor."

'We're now the drug hub of the southeastern United States'

When investigators arrived at the scene, they said they found Harris dead in the bedroom and Lara clinging to life. They said they also found 1.2 kilograms of suspected cocaine, five guns, and about $7,000 in cash close to a body.

Stewart fled the scene but was arrested three days later. He was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, and possession of a firearm by a felon.

A search of Stewart's home, in Wadesboro, North Carolina, turned up guns and related objects tied to the crime, Sheriff Johnson added.

Harris appeared to have had at least two previous run-ins with law enforcement, The Washington Post reported. One was a 2020 drug-possession citation in Oklahoma after police said they found a plastic container with marijuana residue and ashes inside a car he was driving. He paid a $239 fine, records show.

Sheriff Johnson said he was one of the few people not shocked by Harris' demise in a hail of bullets.

"I've been in this business for 50 years, and I can tell you there are politicians involved in criminal activity," he told Insider. "I've seen law-enforcement officers wind up going to jail."

There's been a "tremendous increase" in drug trafficking and violence by the cartels in the sheriff's district since the beginning of the year, he added.

"If you were to talk to the Drug Enforcement Administration, they'd say that we're now the drug hub of the southeastern United States," Sheriff Johnson said.

Data from the sheriff's office showed that since February, officials have seized 442.2 pounds of cocaine in the county with a total value of $7,638,000.

Matthew Phillips, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, said the area has become popular for cartels because it's located between two big cities, Raleigh and Greensboro, and has two major interstate highways running through it.

"Once the drugs get from Mexico to the United States, there are designated routes that move product to different regions of the United States," Phillips said. "And one of the more popular ones comes up through the Atlanta corridor up into North Carolina as it moves up through largely heading towards the Northeast."

The imprint of Jalisco New Generation Cartel is on much of the drug trade, and the violence that goes with it. Last year the DEA made 600 arrests of defendants with alleged ties to the cartel in the Charlotte area alone.

The cartel has emerged as one of Mexico's most powerful criminal organizations. But Phillips said that most of the drug activity in the small towns is independent of the big cartels.

"Once the drugs actually get to these places, there are other networks of distributors who are trying to get it down to the retail level," he said. "So everything is loosely affiliated, loosely connected with these larger organizations in Mexico."

"It's awful to think that someone who is so well known, respected in the community, got wrapped up in something like this," Phillips added.

For many, there are questions surrounding Harris' death. His former student said she believed both parts of the story should be told.

"Regardless of how he went, or what he was doing when he went, I feel as if we should acknowledge what a positive influence he was on the school and to the students in the school," she said, "and not try to erase or cover up his existence in the student body and staff."

Two months after the incident, the community is still reeling. While some appear to have decided to stay quiet - more than two dozen people contacted by Insider declined to be interviewed for this story - others are starting to speak about a case that has left a huge mark on the community.

"This has been a big deal for us," said a former college classmate, who asked that her name not be used. "I just refuse to believe that someone like Barney, who treated everyone with kindness, would be caught up in something like this. We need more answers.

"I keep asking myself, 'How can a man like Barney end up in this situation?'"