OAKLAND — A 27-year-old Skyline High School graduate known to loiter around the Laney College campus was arrested Friday in the deadly shooting of legendary Oakland football coach John Beam, police officials said.
The predawn arrest of Cedric Irving Jr. at the San Leandro BART station capped an intense manhunt for Beam’s suspected killer. The slaying came a day after the longtime coach — who garnered national fame five years ago from the Netflix show “Last Chance U” — raised concerns to Laney leaders about safety on the college’s four campuses, including at the Field House where he was mortally wounded.
Oakland police investigate a fatal shooting at Laney College in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, April 13, 2025. Legendary football coach and Laney College Athletic Director John Beam was shot and killed. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
During a meeting at the school’s downtown campus Wednesday, Beam voiced concerns over security at the college and suggested officials bring back armed security guards, according to Erik Bracken, 30, a reporter for The Peralta Citizen student newspaper who covered the gathering.
Beam recalled how several items were stolen from the Field House, where he had an office and could be found most days, yet the college’s security contractor failed to recover the equipment or identify any suspects, Bracken said. And Beam expressed skepticism about a recent proposal for six guards to carry firearms — questioning whether it went far enough. Five years ago, the college district ended its contract with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, replacing them with unarmed security guards.
“Six guards, four campuses, 24 hours, how does that work?” the former coach asked, according to Bracken.
Beam never mentioned a specific threat from Irving during the meeting. A day after his death, the exact connection between the two men remained unclear.
An Alameda County Sheriff’s deputy spotted Irving near the San Leandro BART station around 3 a.m. Friday after investigators reviewed hundreds of hours of surveillance footage from across Oakland, including inside AC Transit buses.
In interviews with police, Irving allegedly admitted his involvement in the shooting and said he knew Beam, but it was unclear to what extent, multiple sources told this news organization.
Oakland police Assistant Chief James Beere, who has been appointed as the interim Oakland Police Chief, speaks about the shooting death of John Beam during a press conference on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
“It was a very targeted incident — he went specifically to the campus, for a specific reason,” Oakland Police Assistant Chief Jim Beere said during a press conference Friday. Beere did not elaborate.
Irving graduated from Skyline High School in the late 2010s, and played football and ran track at the Oakland hills school, where several years earlier Beam coached the football team. He was known to loiter around the Laney College campus, but he was not a current student there, Beere said.
Cedric Irving Jr., 27, of Oakland is pictured above in his Santa Rita Jail booking photo after his arrest on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025 in connection with the fatal shooting of Laney College Athletic Director John Beam. (Courtesy of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office)
In the unincorporated Alameda County community of Ashland, the shades were drawn over the windows of Irving’s apartment on Friday. A man who answered the door from behind a metal screen declined to comment beyond confirming that Irving Jr lived there.
Irving’s brother, Samuael Irving, told the San Francisco Chronicle that word of his brother’s arrest was “painful.” He described his brother as “the scholar of everyone,” having been a gifted student in the classroom and a talented athlete while running track and playing football.
Yet he said relations with Cedric “got all weird” in recent years following an argument with their father, prompting Cedric to stop talking to his family, the newspaper reported. More recently, he lost a job and was evicted from his home.
“I hope it isn’t him,” Samuael Irving told the outlet. “The Cedric I knew wasn’t capable of murder — but the way things had been going, I honestly don’t know.”
Irving was held without bail Friday afternoon at the Santa Rita Jail, and his arraignment was scheduled for Tuesday. Investigators have since recovered the gun believed to be used in the shooting, which matches the caliber of casings found at the scene.
On Friday morning, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee commended the swift arrest of the suspect.
“I’m grateful to the Oakland Police Department and our dedicated law enforcement partners for their swift work in making an arrest in the shooting of Coach Beam,” Lee said. “This arrest is a testament to the effective collaboration and dedication of our law enforcement community.”
Piedmont Chief of Police Frederick Shavies speaks about John Beam during a Oakland Police press conference about the shooting death of the longtime coach and Laney College Athletic Director as Oakland Police Chief Floyd Mitchell, left, listens at police headquarters in Oakland, Calif. on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. (Dai Sugano/ Bay Area New Group)
The shooting happened less than 24 hours after another school shooting across Oakland at Skyline High School, where a 15-year-old boy was shot in a bathroom after a confrontation. Two teenagers — a 15-year-old a 16-year-old — were later detained in the shooting, while investigators recovered two semi-automatic firearms from around the scene.
The shootings appear unrelated, authorities say.
Beam himself coached football at Skyline High School for 22 years — the vast majority of them as the school’s head coach, where he garnered a legendary reputation while winning league championships nearly every year from the late 1980s through early 2000s.
He left the school in 2004 and went to Laney College, where he continued to find success — most notably winning the 2018 California Community College Athletic Association title. He coached at the college until 2024, when he left the sidelines to focus on his job as the college’s athletic director.
Staff writer Chase Hunter contributed reporting.
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.