Coach featured in Netflix’s Last Chance U dies after Oakland campus shooting

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, although it declined to identify the suspect or the circumstances. Sources told ABC News that Beam was shot in the head, and that the suspect was arrested in possession of a firearm. The shooting is the latest incident in an epidemic of recent gun violence afflicting school and college campuses across the US. Beam, who has led the college’s sports program since July 2006, according to the school’s website, remained in a critical condition in hospital. He appeared with his team on the fifth and final season of the Netflix hit show in 2020, which highlights the challenges that non-elite colleges face in funding and operating a competitive sports program, and chronicling the ups and downs of Laney’s six-win, five-loss 2019 season. The success of the series led to a two-season spin-off, Last Chance U: Basketball, in 2021. In a statement, officials of the Peralta community college district, which oversees Laney, said it was “a frightening moment for our community”, adding that there was no longer an active threat and the campus had reopened. “The safety of our students, faculty and staff is our highest priority, and we are working closely with police and emergency personnel to ensure the campus remains protected,” it said. The acting Oakland police chief, John Beere, gave few additional details of the incident in a press conference on Thursday afternoon. “There was some concern that this may have been an active shooter. We responded as if it was … I can tell you right now it was not an active shooter,” he said. Beere said the suspect, a male of unknown race, wearing dark clothing including a hoodie, was spotted fleeing the scene. He said investigators were looking into any relationship between Beam and the gunman. “We are interviewing witnesses, we’re looking at surveillance footage,” he said. Oakland’s mayor, Barbara Lee, said early on Friday in a statement posted to X that the last two days had been “incredibly heavy for our city”. “Coach Beam is a giant in Oakland – a mentor, an educator, and a lifeline for thousands of young people. For over 40 years, he has shaped leaders on and off the field, and our community is shaken alongside his family,” she said. “This is the second shooting on an Oakland campus in two days, and it is devastating. Schools should be the safest spaces in our city. We need guns off our streets now.” In a later statement on Friday, Lee welcomed news that a person was in custody. “I’m grateful to the Oakland police department and our dedicated law enforcement partners for their swift work in making an arrest in the shooting of Coach Beam,” she said. “This arrest is a testament to the effective collaboration and dedication of our law enforcement community.” In the incident on Wednesday, a student was shot at Oakland’s Skyline high school, the Associated Press reported. The student is in stable condition. Police say they arrested two juveniles and recovered two firearms. According to the EveryShot tracker maintained by the advocacy group Everytown, there have been at least 460 on-campus gunfire incidents in 2025 from elementary schools to university and college campuses, including 33 in California. Nationwide, 73 of the shootings resulted in fatalities.