Murder victim from Puerto Rico: pics 1-2
Murder victim from Florida: pic 3
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Alexander Bernard Harris, 33, of Pembroke Pines, and Todd Green, 28, of northwestern Miami-Dade County, were gunned down at Cutz, 5050 Biscayne Blvd.
Hundreds of friends and relatives gathered at northwest Miami-Dade's Grace Funeral Home to pay respects.
Green, dressed in a simple gray suit, rested in a casket inside the viewing area. Harris' viewing was a little more extravagant.
The rising hip-hop mogul for Miami's Xela Entertainment Group sat inside his yellow Lamborghini, parked under a carport behind the funeral home. Mourners walked past, peering into the open, gull-wing, driver's-side door.
He was wearing blue jeans with several patches, a red San Francisco 49ers football jersey, a baseball cap with more patches, and trendy sunglasses.
The car was surrounded by red plush carpeting and bouquets of red gerberas, roses and orchids.
Harris' daughter, 16-year-old Tareel Harris, said she used to love driving around with her dad in his car, and that he was at rest as he wished.
''That's his favorite car,'' she said. ``He used to joke around a lot about how he loved it so much, he wanted to be buried in that car.''
He'll get a $19,000 glass casket, but on Friday, they let him have one last spin.
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Sep. 08, 2003 A South Florida record label executive was one of two men killed execution-style at a fashionable Biscayne Boulevard barbershop near Morningside, Miami police said.
The Saturday night murders of Alexander Bernard Harris, 33, of Pembroke Pines, CEO of the hip-hop label Xela Entertainment, and a companion, Todd Green, 28, of northwestern Miami-Dade County remain unsolved.
The two men, who were at Cutz getting their hair styled, were shot in the head by up to four gunmen wearing hooded black sweat suits, who then walked away from the shop at 5050 N. Biscayne Blvd. Cutz is co-owned by former Miami Heat star Alonzo Mourning and his barber, Peter Bethel.
Green was with his 1-year-old son when he was shot. The baby was not harmed. Both men were pronounced dead at the scene minutes after the 8:15 p.m. shooting.
Miami police Chief John Timoney said late Sunday night that he had been briefed about the double murders, but he would not say whether police were looking for motives stemming from a record label feud or related to drugs. Records indicate that Harris had a criminal record.
The gunmen appeared to have a single mission: to kill Harris and Green. They took no valuables from the victims and no money from the cash register.
''It wasn't a robbery, I can tell you that much,'' said Timoney, who declined to comment further on the investigation.
Homicide detectives will now scrutinize the professional and personal lives of the men to try to uncover a motive.
''We won't know more about the victims until we sit down with their families and get together their backgrounds,'' said Miami police homicide Sgt. Joe Schallaci.
In recent months, Harris artists had been the targets of violence, according to published reports. The hip-hop record industry has been torn by feuds in recent years, sometimes resulting in violence and death.
Harris' label, Xela, is relatively new and mostly collaborated with the larger Slip-n- Slide. Xela has offices in southern Broward County.
Public records list Harris as director of Xela Entertainment Group, and the company's president is Alex Lecount. Xela's website (which is ''Alex'' spelled backward) describes the record label as ``the brainchild of two successful Florida entrepreneurs, both of whom are named Alex.''
The label's two top artists are up and coming rappers Strawberri and Oczaveus ''Zay'' Williams.
A music industry insider told The Herald that Harris' 13-year-old son was also signed to the record label and performed under the name Lil Alex.
A Miami New Times article published June 26 said Williams was at the center of another shooting involving the record label on June 12.
The rapper had just finished performing at a block party in Richmond Heights when gunmen pulled up alongside a van he and his entourage were in -- bearing Xela Entertainment logos -- and began firing.
Elijah ''Chamber'' Vaughn, another Xela Entertainment artist who was in the van, was hit in the back. He was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital and released the next morning. Williams escaped uninjured.
Xela Entertainment executives said they weren't sure who was responsible for the drive-by attack.
No one from Xela Records could be reached for comment Sunday. Calls to Lecount and recording artist Strawberri went unanswered. Her single Spend Some Money is in heavy rotation on local radio.
Sources close to the label as well as family and friends of the victims were reluctant to talk about the murders.
Dozens of family members gathered at Green's home in northwestern Miami-Dade but would not confirm whether he was employed at Xela, declining requests for interviews.
One of Harris' neighbors at his Broward home said Harris was a good neighbor who helped him get materials to make improvements to his house.
Police said they could not confirm whether Harris had a criminal record, but public records show he was released from prison in May of 1999 after serving five years on two counts of drug trafficking in Miami-Dade County.
Bethel, co-owner of the shop, could not be reached for comment Sunday, but employees at neighboring businesses said this was the first incident of violence they had heard of at the shop.
Nir Perets, who works next door at Majestic Properties, told he gets his hair cut at Cutz and didn't think the shootings had anything to do with Mourning or Bethel.
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