A nationally recognized Korean American football coach, John Beam (66), was killed in a shooting in Northern California’s Oakland area, leading to widespread mourning across the region and the country.
According to the Oakland Police Department, the Laney College sports director was found with a gunshot wound to the head at the college fieldhouse shortly before noon on November 13th. He was taken to a nearby hospital and died on the 14th.
Police identified Cedric Irving Jr. (27) as the suspect. Officers said he fled the scene after the shooting and was arrested on the 14th at a train station. A police official said the case “appears to be a targeted crime,” noting that the investigation is ongoing.
Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dixon stated that the suspect faces a sentence ranging from a minimum of 50 years to life in prison.
Beam was born in San Diego to a Korean mother and a white father. His father, a member of the U.S. Navy, met Beam’s mother while deployed in Korea. Beam played football in high school and college and began his coaching career in 1979 after graduating. He led multiple high school and college programs and had coached at Laney College since 2004, producing more than 20 NFL players and winning six regional college league championships.
He gained national attention in 2020 after appearing in the Netflix college-football documentary series Last Chance U.
Following news of his death, tributes spread quickly across the Bay Area and beyond. Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors wrote, “The Bay Area lost an icon. He was a legend.”
Barbara Lee, the Oakland mayor, recalled Beam’s earlier years at Skyline High School, saying he never gave up on young players, including her nephew. She said Beam’s legacy “will be measured not by numbers or statistics, but by the thousands of young people who learned football from him.”
BY KYEONGJUN KIM [kim.kyeongjun1@koreadaily.com]
