Man charged with murder of legendary football coach John Beam: DA
Coach John Beam was featured in Netflix's "Last Chance U."
A man has been charged with murder in the shooting death of legendary former football coach John Beam, who was killed last week on the Laney College campus in Oakland, California, officials announced.
Cedric Irving, 27, who does not have a criminal record, was charged with murder and use of a gun during the crime, Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson said at a news conference on Monday. If convicted, he could be sentenced to 50 years to life, she said.
Beam, who was featured in Netflix's "Last Chance U," was at the Laney Fieldhouse when he was shot in the head shortly before noon on Thursday, officials said. The 66-year-old coach died on Friday.
His killing came one day after a shooting at Oakland's Skyline High School.
"There were two shootings on school campuses two days in a row -- and I'm just absolutely sick to my stomach about the amount of gun violence in our community, specifically in Oakland," Jones Dickson said.
In the wake of both shootings, the DA on Monday announced she was reinstituting mandatory minimum sentences for gun cases in the county.
"There are way too many guns on the street in the hands that they shouldn't be in," she said.
The mandatory minimum will be: 90 days for misdemeanor possession, 180 days for felony possession and 16 months for a felon in possession of a firearm, the DA's office said. Sentencing will be increased for those in possession of ghost guns, Jones Dickson said.
The DA did not discuss any details of Irving's case on Monday.
Irving, who was taken into custody early Friday morning, did know Beam, but "they did not have a relationship," police said last week. Irving played high school football in the Bay Area, but never played for Beam.
Police described the shooting as targeted; Irving went to campus "for a specific reason" and "has been known to loiter on or around the campus," police said.
"Coach John Beam was a giant in Oakland and mentored thousands," Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said at a news conference on Friday.
"Coach Beam's legacy isn't measured in championships or statistics ... it's measured in the thousands of young people he believed in, mentored and refused to abandon," she said.
ABC News' Jenna Harrison contributed to this report.
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