{"id":59810,"date":"2025-11-19T05:25:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T05:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/59810\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T05:25:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T05:25:24","slug":"suspect-in-shooting-of-oakland-coach-from-last-chance-u-makes-first-court-appearance-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/59810\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect in shooting of Oakland coach from ‘Last Chance U’ makes first court appearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. \u2013 The 27-year-old man charged with shooting<\/a> the widely beloved and former Oakland community college football coach John Beam<\/a> made an initial court appearance Tuesday and will continue to be held without bail.<\/p>\n

Cedric Irving Jr. has been charged with murder and multiple sentencing enhancements in Beam’s death, and he could face 50 years to life in prison if convicted, according to Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson. <\/p>\n

Irving, who appeared wearing a sleeveless, padded vest, did not enter a plea Tuesday. He did not speak and could not be seen by most people in the courtroom as he was inside an enclosed area for defendants. His attorney, Sydney Levin of the county’s public defender’s office, said Irving was waiving a formal arraignment, and the judge granted her request to enter a plea Dec. 16. <\/p>\n

Prosecutors have not provided a possible motive for the shooting at Laney College, which is in downtown Oakland. Irving has no criminal record, the district attorney has said. <\/p>\n

Brendon Woods, the county\u2019s chief public defender, said in a statement issued after Tuesday’s hearing that Irving\u2019s mental health could play a \u201csignificant role\u201d in the case. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe death of Coach Beam is incredibly sad, and the community is mourning his loss. We\u2019re still waiting to receive the bulk of the evidence and getting to know our client,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The courtroom on Tuesday was packed with reporters and friends and family of the legendary coach, who craned to get a look at Irving.<\/p>\n

Beam, 66, was a giant in the local community, a father figure who forged deep relationships with his players while fielding a team that regularly competed for championships. The Netflix docuseries \u201cLast Chance U\u201d focused on Beam and the Laney Eagles in its 2020 season. He\u2019d most recently been serving as the school\u2019s athletic director after retiring from coaching last year.<\/p>\n

Officers arrived at Laney College<\/a> before noon Thursday to find Beam shot in the head at the athletics field house. He was treated at a hospital, but died the following day from his injuries.<\/p>\n

Beam had raised concerns about security at the field house, citing a nearby fire and a previous break-in, according to the Peralta Community College District’s student-run news outlet, The Citizen<\/a>. <\/p>\n

At a community forum the day before he was shot, Beam said he felt the campus was less safe after the district in 2020 ended a contract with the Alameda County Sheriff\u2019s Office for armed deputies. The college now uses unarmed guards.<\/p>\n

Irving was arrested at a commuter rail station just after 3 a.m. Friday. He was carrying the firearm used to shoot Beam, and he admitted to carrying out the shooting, according to the probable cause document.<\/p>\n

Oakland police say the shooting was \u201cvery targeted.\u201d <\/p>\n

Back-to-back shootings at two schools last week have roiled Oakland<\/a>, a city of roughly 400,000 across the bay from San Francisco. On Wednesday, a student was shot and wounded at Oakland\u2019s Skyline High School. <\/p>\n

Beam joined Laney College in 2004 as a running backs coach and became head coach in 2012, winning two league titles. According to his biography on the college\u2019s website, at least 20 of his players went on to the NFL.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Calif. \u2013 The 27-year-old man charged with shooting the widely beloved and former Oakland community college football…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[33762,33091,143,145,144,127,17,16583],"class_list":{"0":"post-59810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-cedric-irving-jr","9":"tag-john-beam","10":"tag-oakland","11":"tag-oakland-headlines","12":"tag-oakland-news","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-u-s-news","15":"tag-ursula-jones-dickson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}