An Oakland, Calif., man was charged with murder Monday for the “targeted” assassination of legendary Laney College football coach John Beam, who he allegedly shot because he believed the star of Netflix’s “Last Chance U” was using “witchcraft” on him, according to a report.
Alameda County prosecutors announced charges against Cedric Irving Jr., 27, on Monday afternoon after Beam, the athletics director at Laney College, was shot in the head on campus Thursday and died the next morning.
Police used surveillance camera footage to ID Irving as the shooter and finally arrested him on Friday.
He had a firearm in his bag and confessed to both the murder and owning the gun, according to an affidavit obtained by NBC Bay Area.
Irving, who played football in high school, had a “fixation” on Beam and allegedly confessed to killing the coach because he believed Beam had used black magic on him and others, police sources told The San Francisco Chronicle.
He faces one charge of murder plus a separate charge for using a gun to allegedly kill the 66-year-old. The charges each carry a maximum sentence of 25 years to life and he will be arraigned Tuesday.
Irving had played for Skyline High School, where Beam had coached for 22 years. He never played under Beam, but the pair knew each other and Irving was known to “loiter” around the Laney College campus, according to James Beere, assistant chief of the Oakland Police Department.
Beere described the shooting as a “very targeted incident.”
“The Peralta community is devastated by his shooting,” Laney Chancellor Tammeil Gilkerson wrote in a message to employees, according to CNN. “We are stunned and heartbroken that such violence has touched our campus and one of the most respected and beloved members of our Laney, Peralta, and Oakland community.”
Beam joined Laney’s football coaching staff in 2004 and was promoted to head coach in 2012. He was featured in the Netflix series in 2020.
Twenty of his former players have gone on to play in the NFL.
“My thoughts are with Coach John Beam and his loved ones,” Oakland mayor Barbara Lee wrote in an X post early Friday morning. “We are praying for him. Coach Beam is a giant in Oakland — a mentor, an educator, and a lifeline for thousands of young people. For over 40 years, he has shaped leaders on and off the field, and our community is shaken alongside his family.
“This is the second shooting on an Oakland campus in two days, and it is devastating. Schools should be the safest spaces in our city. We need guns off our streets now. We are standing together, praying for Coach Beam and his loved ones.”
