This story was reported in collaboration with The Peralta Citizen (opens in new tab).
One day before his fatal shooting in what police called a “targeted incident,” Laney College athletic director John Beam stood in a community forum and said he was worried about safety on campus.
Beam, 66, raised concerns specifically about security at the Laney College field house, citing a nearby fire and a previous break-in. He made the comments Wednesday at a “Taco ’Bout Safety” event on campus. He was shot in the field house Thursday, and police announced his death Friday.
Cedric Irving Jr., a 27-year-old former Laney student and Oakland high school football player, was arrested Friday as a suspect in the shooting.
Two days before the shooting, an active shooter drill took place on the campus.
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Beam said at the event Wednesday that he felt the campus was less safe after the 2020 termination of a contract with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office that provided armed deputies to protect the school. In June, the Peralta Community College District switched its security contractors and assigned unarmed guards from Diligence Security Group to guard Laney College.
Beam claimed the security contractors were able to show him footage of a theft at the field house but did not intervene, recover items, or detain suspects. He questioned whether this was because of a shortage of guards spread across the four community colleges that make up the Peralta Community College District.
“Six guards, four campuses, 24 hours,” Beam said. “How does that work?”
At Wednesday’s safety forum, district official Abdul Pridgen presented data that showed 85% of respondents would feel safer with armed security on campus, according to a recording and presentation slides at the event.
The Peralta Community College District did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A source with knowledge of the shooting said the suspect climbed stairs inside the Laney field house. Beam could be heard saying “no, no, no” before he was shot, the source said.
“This was a very targeted incident,” Oakland Assistant Police Chief James Beere said. Irving, who was known to loiter at the Laney College campus, knew Beam, Beere said. He declined to explain the nature of their relationship.
Pridgen said at the Wednesday meeting that the district does not “have the resources we need to help our community,” referencing the lack of armed guards and the inability to make arrests.
Pridgen said last September at a Peralta Board of Trustees meeting (opens in new tab) that dispatchers would deploy unarmed officers without the power to arrest to decrease the likelihood of a violent interaction. According to the district’s contract with Diligence, 86% of the security staff assigned to Laney College are unarmed “safety ambassadors.”
Diligence reps did not respond to a request for comment.
Beam was a longtime football coach at Oakland’s Skyline High School before taking over as Laney College’s head coach in 2012, building a winning program.
He had a strong reputation for helping student-athletes transfer to Division 1 schools and mentoring the young players who were members of his team. The team’s success and Beam’s personality and relationships with players led him to become a star of the Netflix show “Last Chance U” in its fifth season.
“Gun violence has stolen the life of a man who dedicated himself to building up the young people of this city,” Mayor Barbara Lee said. “We cannot accept this. We cannot let guns continue flooding our streets and destroying the very people trying to save our community.”
Who is the suspect?
Irving had broken off contact with his family, according to his younger brother Samuael Irving, who said Friday that it had been months since their last conversation.
As a student at Skyline High School in Oakland, Cedric Irving was a member of the football and track teams and later attended Laney College, according to his brother. Irving knew Beam and possibly practiced with Laney’s football team, his brother said.
“I hope he’s not the suspect,” Samuael told The Standard. “It made me tear up.”
The details of Irving’s life are hazy. Samuael said his brother had been a security guard but lost that position after “an altercation with a lady” while on the job. About two years ago, he worked in a Domino’s pizzeria. He had been living alone in an Oakland apartment, his brother said.
“I honestly don’t know what he’s been up to,” Samuael said. “He never told us anything.”
Police apprehended Irving at 3 a.m. Friday at the San Leandro BART station.