Tributes Roll In For Legendary College Football Coach, 'Last Chance U' Star

There's some tragic news out of the Bay Area after it was announced that Laney College athletic director and former football coach John Beam — who was featured in the Netflix documentary series, Last Chance U — has died after being shot on Thursday.

According to ABC 7, the shooting occurred at Laney Fieldhouse on the school's campus around noon on Thursday. This put the campus on lockdown, which was later lifted and remained closed Thursday and Friday.

Sadly, Oakland Police announced Beam's death on Friday, and also revealed that a suspect in the incident had been arrested.

According to police, 27-year-old Cedric Irving Jr. was arrested early Friday morning at a BART station. The arrest occurred without incident, and a gun was also recovered.

"This was a very targeted incident," Oakland Assistant Chief James Beere said. He confirmed that Irving and Beam knew each other but were not close. He did not disclose how they knew each other, but did mention that the late coach was "open to helping everybody in our community."

After news of Beam's death broke, tributes came flooding in, including one from Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee.

"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. He gave Oakland's youth their best chance, and he never stopped fighting for them," Lee wrote. "Gun violence has stolen the life of a man who dedicated himself to building up the young people of this city."

The series Last Chance U ran from 2016 to 2020 and followed junior college football programs, their players, and coaches. Beam and the Laney College program were featured in the series' fifth and final season, which premiered on Netflix in 2020.