Man charged with murder in shooting of Oakland football coach and ‘Last Chance U’ star John Beam

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OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A 27-year-old man was charged Monday with murder in the shooting death of celebrated former football coach John Beam, who died Friday after being shot in the head on the junior college campus in Oakland where he worked.

Cedric Irving Jr. could face 50 years to life if convicted, said Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson at a Monday press conference. Irving also faces enhancement charges alleging he personally fired a gun that caused great bodily injury and that the victim was particularly vulnerable, possibly due to age, according to the charging complaint.

Beam, 66, was a giant in the local community, a father figure who forged deep relationships with his players while fielding a team that regularly competed for championships. The Netflix docuseries “Last Chance U” focused on Beam and the Laney Eagles in its 2020 season. He’d most recently been serving as the school’s athletic director after retiring from coaching last year.

“He really is the best of Oakland — was the best of Oakland,” Jones Dickson said. “His spirit is still here.”

The district attorney said Irving had no criminal record. He is being held without bail, and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday. The Alameda County Public Defender’s Office said it has not been appointed to represent Irving and declined comment.

Back-to-back shootings at two schools last week have roiled Oakland, a city of roughly 400,000 across the bay from San Francisco. On Wednesday, a student was shot at Oakland’s Skyline High School. The student is in stable condition and two juveniles were in custody.

Jones Dickson said Skyline students were on a field trip at Laney College and had to suffer through two lockdowns in the same week. She said it was time to bring accountability into the debate over gun violence because too many young people were being hurt by easy access to firearms.

“That’s unacceptable that we have children in our community who now this is the norm. Two days in a row that they’re locked down for gun violence on a campus. I’m not good with that,” she said.

Officers arrived at Laney College before noon Thursday to find Beam shot in the head at the athletics field house. He was treated at a hospital, but died the following day from his injuries.

Irving was arrested at a commuter rail station just after 3 a.m. Friday. He was carrying the firearm used to shoot Beam, and he admitted to carrying out the shooting, according to the probable cause document.

Oakland Police Assistant Chief James Beere said the suspect went on campus for a “specific reason” but did not elaborate. “This was a very targeted incident,” he said at a Friday news conference.

Beere did not say how the two men knew each other but said Irving was known to hang around the Laney campus. Irving’s brother told the San Francisco Chronicle that Irving had lost his job as a security guard after an altercation and was facing eviction at home.

Beam joined Laney College in 2004 as a running backs coach and became head coach in 2012, winning two league titles. According to his biography on the college’s website, at least 20 of his players went on to the NFL.

Beam previously worked at Skyline High School, where Irving had played football but after Beam had left for another job.