Laney College athletic director John Beam was shot on campus Thursday, one day after a shooting at an Oakland high school that wounded one student.
Beam, 66, was Laney’s head football coach from 2012 until 2024 and starred in the Netflix show “Last Chance U” during its critically acclaimed (opens in new tab) fifth season in 2020.
The Oakland Police Department said that a person had been shot at 11:53 a.m. on the 900 block of Fallon Street and was hospitalized. An update from the Peralta Community College District just after 7:30 p.m. said Beam was in critical condition at an Oakland hospital.
The district confirmed the shooting occurred inside the Laney Field House and said the campus was closed for the rest of the day. Campus will open Friday, according to an update from the district late Thursday.
The assailant climbed the stairs inside the Laney Field House, an athletic facility near the football and baseball fields and Beam could be heard saying “no, no, no” before he was shot, a source with knowledge of the shooting said.
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Beam was reportedly shot in the head, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. (opens in new tab)
“We’ve got to do a better job tackling violence in Oakland,” Loren Taylor, a former City Council member who was defeated by Barbara Lee in a campaign for mayor this year, posted on social media (opens in new tab).
Police have made no arrests.
The district put the campus on lockdown. At 1:02 p.m. Thursday, the district notified students that there was no longer an active threat but said in-person classes had been canceled. Online classes were to continue as scheduled.
It’s the second shooting in two days at an Oakland school. A juvenile was shot on Wednesday at Skyline High School and sustained non-life-threatening injuries. That shooting occurred inside a bathroom, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. (opens in new tab) Two suspects, also minors, were arrested.