A US soccer coach who starred within the Netflix documentary Last Chance U, about struggling school groups, has died after being shot on campus, authorities in California mentioned.
John Beam, director of athletics at Oakland’s Laney Faculty, was damage in a Thursday lunchtime incident on the college’s discipline home, its downtown sports activities coaching advanced. He later died, the Oakland police division mentioned on Friday.
A lockdown of your entire Laney campus was lifted by Friday morning, and the Oakland police division introduced it had made an arrest, though it declined to determine the suspect or the circumstances.
Sources told ABC News that Beam was shot within the head, and that the suspect was arrested in possession of a firearm.
The capturing is the newest incident in an epidemic of latest gun violence afflicting school and college campuses throughout the US.
Beam, who has led the school’s sports activities program since July 2006, in accordance with the school’s website, remained in a crucial situation in hospital. He appeared along with his crew on the fifth and remaining season of the Netflix hit show in 2020, which highlights the challenges that non-elite faculties face in funding and working a aggressive sports activities program, and chronicling the ups and downs of Laney’s six-win, five-loss 2019 season.
The success of the sequence led to a two-season spin-off, Final Probability U: Basketball, in 2021.
In a statement, officers of the Peralta neighborhood school district, which oversees Laney, mentioned it was “a daunting second for our neighborhood”, including that there was now not an energetic menace and the campus had reopened.
“The protection of our college students, college and employees is our highest precedence, and we’re working intently with police and emergency personnel to make sure the campus stays protected,” it mentioned.
The appearing Oakland police chief, John Beere, gave few further particulars of the incident in a press conference on Thursday afternoon.
“There was some concern that this may occasionally have been an energetic shooter. We responded as if it was … I can inform you proper now it was not an energetic shooter,” he mentioned.
Beere mentioned the suspect, a male of unknown race, carrying darkish clothes together with a hoodie, was noticed fleeing the scene. He mentioned investigators had been wanting into any relationship between Beam and the gunman.
“We’re interviewing witnesses, we’re surveillance footage,” he mentioned.
Oakland’s mayor, Barbara Lee, mentioned early on Friday in a press release posted to X that the final two days had been “extremely heavy for our metropolis”.
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“Coach Beam is a big in Oakland – a mentor, an educator, and a lifeline for hundreds of younger individuals. For over 40 years, he has formed leaders on and off the sphere, and our neighborhood is shaken alongside his household,” she mentioned.
“That is the second capturing on an Oakland campus in two days, and it’s devastating. Faculties needs to be the most secure areas in our metropolis. We want weapons off our streets now.”
In a later assertion on Friday, Lee welcomed information that an individual was in custody. “I’m grateful to the Oakland police division and our devoted legislation enforcement companions for his or her swift work in making an arrest within the capturing of Coach Beam,” she mentioned.
“This arrest is a testomony to the efficient collaboration and dedication of our legislation enforcement neighborhood.”
Within the incident on Wednesday, a pupil was shot at Oakland’s Skyline highschool, the Related Press reported. The scholar is in secure situation. Police say they arrested two juveniles and recovered two firearms.
In line with the EveryShot tracker maintained by the advocacy group Everytown, there have been no less than 460 on-campus gunfire incidents in 2025 from elementary colleges to college and school campuses, together with 33 in California. Nationwide, 73 of the shootings resulted in fatalities.
