REACTIONS HAVE POURED IN from around the Bay Area and the sports world following the death of Laney College athletic director and former football coach John Beam on Friday after he was shot at the Oakland campus a day earlier.
Beam, whose tenure at Laney College was featured on the Netflix documentary “Last Chance U” in 2020 and included a state championship, was shot at the Laney Fieldhouse on East Eighth Street shortly before noon Thursday. He was taken to a hospital but succumbed to his injuries at about 10 a.m. Friday, Oakland police said.
Police in a Friday afternoon news conference announced the arrest of Cedric Irving Jr., 27, as the suspected shooter of Beam. Irving was taken into custody at the San Leandro BART station early Friday morning, and investigators haven’t released a motive for the shooting.
Piedmont Police Chief Frederick Shavies at the news conference read a statement from Beam’s family and described himself as “a friend, a mentee and a longtime admirer of John Beam.”
Beam’s family in the statement asked for privacy and said, “Our hearts are full from the outpouring of love and support from all who cared about him. We are deeply grateful for your continued prayers.”
Chancellor Tammeil Gilkerson with the Peralta Community College District, which oversees Laney College, in a letter to the college community listed Beam’s accomplishments across 45 years of coaching at Laney as well as Skyline High School before that.
Beam came to Laney in 2004 as an assistant coach and became head coach in 2012, and over the course of his coaching career developed more than 30 National Football League players, including seven Super Bowl participants, according to Gilkerson.
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee was among the local elected officials who issued statements following Beam’s death.
“Coach’s 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, while at Skyline High School,” Lee said.
“Gun violence has stolen the life of a man who dedicated himself to building up the young people of this city. We cannot accept this. We cannot let guns continue flooding our streets and destroying the very people trying to save our community,” she said.
Gun violence has stolen the life of a man who dedicated himself to building up the young people of this city. We cannot accept this.
Mayor barbara Lee
U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Oakland, called Beam’s death “a deep loss for Oakland. Our city is mourning a mentor, teacher, and steady guide who devoted his life to opening doors for generations of young people.”
Former players for Beam, such as brothers Nahshon and Rejzohn Wright, who are both currently in the NFL, posted on social media mourning his death, as did other sports stars with ties to Oakland. NBA All-Star and Oakland native Damian Lillard shared a photo with Beam and called him a “true Oakland legend and GREAT man.”
“Hundreds of kids all over Oakland became the type of men they are today because of this dude,” Lillard wrote on Instagram.
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr wore a shirt with Beam’s name and a heart under it while speaking to the media before the team’s game in San Antonio on Friday evening.
“He was a revered figure in Oakland, he did so much for so many people,” he said.
Tragedy echoing a national crisis
Kerr also tied the shooting to the broader issue of gun violence in America.
“We have to be the change, as a community, as citizens, we have to be the ones that insist that we address the gun violence issue in this country,” he said.
Irving, Beam’s suspected shooter, played football at Skyline High School but did not play for Beam, according to Oakland Assistant Police Chief James Beere, who called the shooting a “very targeted incident” but did not elaborate on a possible motive.
“The suspect did know Coach Beam, but they did not have a relationship,” Beere said.
Irving was not a student or employee at Laney but was known to loiter on or near the campus, according to Beere.
The assistant chief said investigators “looked at every camera we could legally look at” to pursue the shooting suspect and tracked him across different parts of the city and on a bus before he was taken into custody at the San Leandro BART station at about 3:15 a.m.
A firearm found in Irving’s possession was the same caliber as rounds found at the shooting scene, Beere said.
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