Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Police in California investigating the shooting of an American football coach from the hit Netflix documentary series “Last Chance U” said Friday they have made an arrest. John Beam, a coach and father figure who has tutored generations of athletes at Oakland’s Laney College, was shot in the head on campus on Thursday. Beam, 66, was rushed to the hospital after the attack by a person wearing a dark hoodie, where he was said to be in critical condition. The shooting sparked police appeals for help, as former players and public officials heaped praise on Beam. Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee called him “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.”
The suspect, whom the San Francisco Chronicle named as Cedric Irving Jr, was taken into custody at a train station near Oakland before dawn Friday. The paper cited a source close to the investigation saying Irving had confessed to the shooting. Oakland Police confirmed on social media that a suspect had been arrested, but did not identify him.
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“Last Chance U” ran for five seasons on Netflix, chronicling the lives and struggles of young men playing on the football teams at US community colleges. The first two seasons were set in Mississippi, the next two in Kansas, with the final season — which debuted in 2020 — set in Oakland, a city in the San Francisco Bay Area. The show looks at the role that such programs play in offering discipline and opportunity to young men who often lack both. Some of those who participate in these teams are hoping to move from their community college — publicly funded institutions that offer associate degrees — to larger universities with more developed football programs that feed into the professional NFL.
Collegiate-level sport in the United States has a huge following and can make stars of very young athletes well before they turn professional. Some colleges have football stadiums that hold more than 100,000 fans, which are fully packed for every game. Many football fans avidly follow these theoretically amateur teams, despite the ever-changing cast of players.
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