Man charged with murder in shooting of Oakland football coach and 'Last Chance U' star John Beam

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A 27-year-old man was charged Monday with murder in the shooting death of celebrated former football coach John Beam, who died Friday after being shot in the head on the junior college campus in Oakland where he worked.

Cedric Irving Jr. could face 50 years to life if convicted, said Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson at a Monday press conference. Irving also faces enhancement charges alleging he personally fired a gun that caused great bodily injury and that the victim was particularly vulnerable, possibly due to age, according to the charging complaint.

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 “Last Chance U” focused on Beam and the Laney Eagles in its 2020 season. He’d most recently been serving as the school’s athletic director after retiring from coaching last year.

“He really is the best of Oakland — was the best of Oakland,” Jones Dickson said. "His spirit is still here.”

The district attorney said Irving had no criminal record. He is being held without bail, and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday. The Alameda County Public Defender’s Office said it has not been appointed to represent Irving and declined comment.

Back-to-back shootings at two schools last week have roiled Oakland, a city of roughly 400,000 across the bay from San Francisco. On Wednesday, a student was shot at Oakland’s Skyline High School. The student is in stable condition and two juveniles were in custody.

Jones Dickson said Skyline students were on a field trip at Laney College and had to suffer through two lockdowns in the same week. She said it was time to bring accountability into the debate over gun violence because too many young people were being hurt by easy access to firearms.

“That’s unacceptable that we have children in our community who now this is the norm. Two days in a row that they’re locked down for gun violence on a campus. I’m not good with that,” she said.

Officers arrived at Laney College 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.

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.

Oakland Police Assistant Chief James Beere said the suspect went on campus for a “specific reason” but did not elaborate. “This was a very targeted incident,” he said at a Friday news conference.

Beere did not say how the two men knew each other but said Irving was known to hang around the Laney campus. Irving's brother told the San Francisco Chronicle that Irving had lost his job as a security guard after an altercation and was facing eviction at home.

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’s website, at least 20 of his players went on to the NFL.

Beam previously worked at Skyline High School, where Irving had played football but after Beam had left for another job.

Flowers and signs are displayed at a sidewalk memorial for former Oakland football coach John Beam at Laney College, in Oakland, Calif., Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Jayne Moser looks at a sidewalk memorial for former football coach John Beam at Laney College, in Oakland, Calif., Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson speaks about charges for suspect Cedric Irving in the shooting of football coach John Beam at a news conference in Oakland, Calif., Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Leticia Palazzo contributes to a makeshift memorial outside the Laney College Athletics Fieldhouse for Athletic Director John Beam, who was shot Thursday, in Oakland, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (Yalonda M. James/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

DENVER (AP) — A Frontier Airlines plane hit and killed a pedestrian on the runway of the Denver International Airport during takeoff, airport authorities said, sparking an engine fire and forcing passengers to evacuate.

The plane, on route from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport, “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff at DEN at approximately 11:19 p.m. on Friday," the airport's official X account wrote.

A spokesperson for the airport said the pedestrian, who jumped a perimeter fence, has died. They said the unidentified person was hit two minutes after entering the airport. The person is not believed to be an airport employee.

“We're stopping on the runway,” the pilot tells the control tower according to the site ATC.com. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.”

The pilot tells the air traffic controller they have “231 souls” on board and that an “individual was walking across the runway.”

The air traffic controller responds that they are “rolling the trucks now" before the pilot tells the tower they “have smoke in the aircraft. We are going to evacuate on the runway.”

Frontier Airlines said in a statement flight 4345 was the one involved in the collision and that “smoke was reported in the cabin and the pilots aborted takeoff.” It was not clear whether the smoke was linked to the crash with the pedestrian.

“The Airbus A321 was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members,” the airline said. “We are investigating this incident and gathering more information in coordination with the airport and other safety authorities.”

Passengers were then evacuated via slides and the emergency crew bused them to the terminal. The airport spokesperson said 12 passengers suffered minor injuries and five were taken to local hospitals.

Denver Airport said the National Transportation Safety Board had been notified and that runway 17L, where the incident took place, will remain closed while an investigation is conducted. It is expected to open later today.

The pedestrian death came a day after a Delta Air Lines employee was killed while on the job at the Orlando International Airport. In a statement, the airline said the employee was killed Thursday night without providing details of the incident nor the name of the employee.

“We are focused on extending our full support to family and taking care of our Orlando team during this difficult time,” the airline said. "We are working with local authorities as a full investigation gets underway to determine what occurred.”

FILE - A Frontier Airlines jetliner taxis down a runway for take off from Denver International airport on Nov. 25, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)