John Beam: ‘Last Chance U’ coach dies after being shot on campus of Oakland’s Laney College

John Beam, a 66-year-old junior college football coach who gained fame at Laney College in Oakland, California, during the final season of Netflix’s “Last Chance U,” died from gunshot woulds after being shot Thursday on campus, according to the Oakland Police Department.

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The 27-year-old gunman, identified as Cedric Irving Jr., was arrested early Friday morning at a Bay Area Rapid Transit station in San Leandro, California, Oakland police said, according to The New York Times.

Police Chief Floyd Mitchell announced Beam’s death at a news conference Friday, according to The Associated Press, which also reported that Assistant Chief James Beere said that although the suspect in custody and Beam weren’t close, they knew each other. Beere called it “a very targeted incident,” per the AP.

Beere added that the suspect had played football at Skyline High School but not while Beam worked there before his Laney College days, according to the AP.

The shooting reportedly occurred around noon on Thursday at the football facility on Laney College’s campus, where Beam worked as head coach since 2012 before stepping down in 2024. He had remained the school’s athletic director.

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The Peralta Community College District initially sent an emergency alert saying an active shooter was on campus but later clarified only one person was shot. A subsequent statement did not directly identify Beam, describing him only as a senior member of the athletic staff, but said he had been transported to the hospital.

Police briefly locked down the campus until they determined there was no longer an active threat, according to the Times.

Beam was a well-known figure in the Bay Area football community, and his efforts were documented on the fifth season of “Last Chance U” in 2020. Unlike coaches from other seasons of the show, Beam was portrayed as an empathetic coach who was relentlessly dedicated to his players, and one who got results. Before Laney, he recorded a 160-33-3 record as Skyline’s football coach.

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Nahshon and and Rejzohn Wright, now part of the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints, respectively, showed their love for Beam on social media after the shooting with a series of Instagram stories. Before the defensive backs made their way to the NFL, and before they played at Oregon State, they played for Beam.

“You mean the world to me,” Rejzohn Wright captioned one of his Instagram stories Thursday with a broken heart emoji alongside those words and a picture of him and Beam head-to-head sharing a moment on the sidelines.

Between the two jobs, Beam had seen over 20 players reach the NFL. In an eerie coincidence, a student was reportedly shot at Skyline less than 24 hours earlier on Wednesday. The student is in stable condition, per the AP, and two juveniles were arrested in connection with the shooting.

Beam’s death is a hit to the East Bay, where he affected the lives of many young athletes, whom Beam notably encouraged to be vulnerable.

“For over 40 years, he has shaped leaders on and off the field, and our community is shaken alongside his family,” Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said, per the AP.