Legendary former football coach John Beam died Friday morning after being shot on the campus of Laney College in Oakland, California, on Thursday, the Oakland Police Department said, as authorities announced the arrest of a suspect.
Beam, who appears on Netflix’s “Last Chance U,” is a Bay Area football legend and had coached the sport for more than 40 years before becoming solely the school’s athletic director last year.
Beam was at Laney Fieldhouse when he was shot shortly before noon Thursday, authorities said. The alleged shooter fled the scene.
Laney College Director of Athletics John Beam.
laney school
Police reviewed surveillance footage and at 3:15 a.m. Friday, a person matching the suspect’s description was seen at a Bay Area rapid transit station and was taken into custody, Oakland police said.
Police did not discuss a possible motive.
The suspect, Cedric Irving, 27, knew the coach, but “they had no relationship,” police said. Irving played high school football in the Bay Area, but never played for Beam.
Irving did not attend Laney College or work at the university, but he went to campus “for a specific reason” and “is known to loiter on or around campus,” police said.
Authorities respond to a shooting at Laney College in Oakland, California, on November 13, 2025.
KGO
Oakland police said the department did not know Irving.
A gun recovered from the suspect is the same caliber as the casings and bullets recovered at the crime scene, police added.
Beam, who was hospitalized in critical condition, died around 10 a.m. Friday, said Gloria Beltran of Oakland police.
Laney College Director of Athletics John Beam.
laney school
Piedmont Police Chief Frederick Shavies called the coach an “absolutely incredible human being.”
“Our hearts hurt,” Shavies said.
“Coach John Beam was a giant in Oakland and mentored thousands of people,” Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said at a news conference Friday.
“He gave the youth of Oakland their best opportunity,” Lee said.
“Coach Beam’s legacy is not measured in championships or statistics…it is measured in the thousands of young men he believed in, mentored and refused to give up on, including my nephew,” Lee said.
