A 27-year-old Skyline high school alumnus, frequently seen lingering near Laney College, has been taken into custody in connection with the fatal shooting of Oakland football coach John Beam.
Police identified the suspect as Cedric Irving Jr, who was apprehended before dawn at the San Leandro, California, Bart station, ending an urgent search for the individual believed responsible.
The killing occurred one day after Beam, who became widely recognized following his appearance on the Netflix series Last Chance U five years ago, raised concerns to Laney College administrators regarding campus safety. His comments referenced all four Laney campuses, and included the field house, the location where he was fatally shot.
James Beere, the acting Oakland police chief, described the shooting during a Friday briefing. “This was a very targeted incident,” he said, noting that Beam and the suspect had been acquainted but were not close.
Beere also stated that the alleged shooter came to campus for a “specific reason”, though he declined to elaborate. He emphasized Beam’s community presence, saying Beam was “open to helping everybody in our community”.
According to a reporter for the Citizen news outlet who attended a Wednesday meeting at Laney’s downtown campus, Beam used that gathering to express his unease about current security measures. Beam urged officials to reinstate armed security guards, citing past thefts at the field house, where he worked daily.
Beam had described how stolen items were never recovered and no suspects were identified by the college’s security contractor. He also questioned a recent idea to arm six guards, asking whether it would sufficiently address the problem.
The district had reportedly previously ended its partnership with the Alameda county sheriff’s office five years earlier and shifted to an unarmed security force, according to the Mercury News.
The 66-year-old coach was shot Thursday at Laney College and died the following day. The shooting was the latest incident in an epidemic of gun violence afflicting school and college campuses across the US.
Tributes and expressions of grief have since poured in from both professional and high school sports communities following Beam’s death.
Beam’s coaching career began with a dominant run at Skyline High, where he led the team to 15 Oakland Athletic League titles from the 1980s through the early 2000s. He later achieved similar success at Laney College before stepping away from coaching last year to focus on his duties as athletic director. His influence reached a national audience after Netflix highlighted Laney’s football career in its 2020 season of Last Chance U.
