A US football coach who starred in the Netflix documentary Last Chance U, about struggling college teams, has died after being shot on campus, authorities in California said.
John Beam, director of athletics at Oakland’s Laney College, was hurt in a Thursday lunchtime incident at the school’s field house, its downtown sports training complex. He later died, the Oakland police department said on Friday.
A lockdown of the entire Laney campus was lifted by Friday morning, and the Oakland police department announced it had made an arrest.
“This was a very targeted incident,” said the acting Oakland police chief, James Beere, who added that the suspect and Beam knew each other, but were not close.
The suspect went on campus for a “specific reason”, Beere told reporters, but did not elaborate on what that was. Beam was “open to helping everybody in our community”, he said.
Sources told ABC News that Beam was shot in the head, and that the suspect was arrested in possession of a firearm.
Beam, began his career at Laney College in 2004 as a running backs coach and became head coach in 2012, winning two league titles. He had served as the college’s athletics director since 2006, according to the school’s website. Beam retired from coaching in 2024 but stayed on at the school to shape its athletic programs.