Legendary former football coach John Beam died on Friday morning after he was shot on the Laney College campus in Oakland, California, on Thursday, the Oakland Police Department said, as authorities announced a suspect’s arrest.
Beam, featured in Netflix’s “Last Chance U,” is a football legend in the Bay Area and had coached the sport for over 40 years before becoming solely the school’s athletic director last year.
Beam was at the Laney Fieldhouse when he was shot shortly before noon on Thursday, authorities said. The alleged shooter fled the scene.
Director of Athletics at Laney College John Beam.
Laney College
Police combed through surveillance footage, and at 3:15 a.m. Friday, a person matching the suspect’s description was spotted at a Bay Area Rapid Transit station and was taken into custody, Oakland police said.
Police did not discuss a possible motive.
The suspect — 27-year-old Cedric Irving — did know the coach, but “they did not have a relationship,” police said. Irving played high school football in the Bay Area, but never played for Beam.
Irving didn’t attend Laney College or work at the college, but he went to campus “for a specific reason” and “has been known to loiter on or around the campus,” police said.
Authorities respond to a shooting at Laney College in Oakland, California, Nov. 13, 2025.
KGO
Oakland police said Irving was not known to the department.
A gun recovered from the suspect is the same caliber as the casings and rounds recovered at the crime scene, police added.
Beam, who was hospitalized in critical condition, died at about 10 a.m. Friday, Gloria Beltran of the Oakland police said.
Director of Athletics at Laney College John Beam.
Laney College
Piedmont Police Chief Frederick Shavies called the coach an “absolutely incredible human being.”
“Our hearts are aching,” Shavies said.
“Coach John Beam was a giant in Oakland and mentored thousands,” Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said at a news conference on Friday.
“He gave Oakland’s youth their best chance,” Lee said.
“Coach Beam’s legacy isn’t measured in championships or statistics … it’s measured in the thousands of young people he believed in, mentored and refused to abandon, including my nephew,” Lee said.
