John Beam, a beloved Oakland football coach who helped bring national attention to Laney College and starred in Netflix’s “Last Chance U,” was shot Thursday inside a building at the school, according to reports.
Authorities said the suspect remained at large. Police said the gunman fled the scene wearing a black hoodie.
Beam, 66, was shot in the head, community member Ray Bobbitt told the San Francisco Chronicle.
No further details about Beam’s condition were immediately available.
Former players from multiple generations rushed to Highland Hospital as news spread to support the coach who helped shape their lives.
“We are just sitting here and praying,” Bobbitt told the Chronicle.
“From what I understand, it’s critical. It’s tense up there,” Benjie Ross, who played for Beam at Skyline High School in the 1980s, said.
Ross said he could not see Beam on Thursday afternoon but joined others waiting for updates.
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Oakland police had declined to give information about Beam’s condition as of Friday.
“Out of respect for the family, I’m not going to provide any updates with regard to the victim,” acting Oakland Police Chief James Beere said.
The San Francisco Standard reported that Beam was shot at 11:53 a.m. on the 900 block of Fallon Street and was hospitalized. A district update after 7:30 p.m. said Beam was in critical condition at Highland Hospital.
A source who spoke anonymously told the paper that Beam was alive when taken from the campus by an ambulance.
The shooting occurred inside the fieldhouse.
Police said officers responded quickly to the scene after a report of gunfire.
They confirmed the suspect fled and said there was no longer an active threat by early afternoon.
“We’re currently asking the public’s help in locating a suspect,” Beere said.
The shooting was the second campus-related incident in Oakland this week. On Wednesday, a student was wounded in a shooting at Skyline High School.
Beam served as Laney’s head football coach from 2012 to 2024 and became widely known during the 2020 season of “Last Chance U.”
Netflix describes “Last Chance U” as a show where “elite athletes with difficult pasts turn to junior college football for a last shot at turning their lives around and achieving their dreams.”
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