(KRON) – The man arrested in connection to the fatal shooting of legendary Oakland, California football coach John Beam has been charged with murder.
Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson announced the charges against 27-year-old Cedric Irving Jr. in a news conference Monday.
“Coach Beam was shot in the head and murdered,” DA Jones Dickson said.
The DA also said she would be reinstating a policy seeking mandatory criminal sentences for gun crimes.
The sports community in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and beyond was sent reeling last week following the fatal shooting of beloved Oakland football coach John Beam. Beam, who was featured in the Netflix streaming series “Last Chance U,” was shot on Thursday near the football field at Oakland’s Laney College.
Beam retired as Laney College football coach last year but remained the school’s athletic director. On Friday, police announced that Beam, 66, had died as a result of his injuries.
That same day, police announced that a suspect, Cedric Irving Jr., had been arrested in connection to the shooting.
Who is Cedric Irving Jr.?
Few details are known at this time about the suspect arrested in connection to Coach Beam’s shooting. Cedric Irving Jr. Irving was arrested early Friday morning near the San Leandro Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station.
At the time of his arrest, Irving was in possession of a firearm that matched the caliber of the one used in the shooting of coach Beam, police said.
The date of his arrest, Nov. 14, was also his birthday. Irving is 27 years old.
He is currently being held at Santa Rita Jail on no bail, according to jail records. At a press conference Friday, Oakland police said Beam and Irving Jr. knew each other, however, the nature of their relationship remains unclear.
Irving, police said, was known to loiter around the Laney college campus, but he was not a student there. Irving also played football at Skyline High School, where Beam once coached.
But the suspect was never coached by Beam at Skyline, officials said.
Irving is due in court on Tuesday morning where he will face an arraignment. At this time, police have said little about a possible motive in the shooting, other than calling it “targeted.”
‘True Oakland legend’
Tributes have continued to pour in for coach Beam, including from East Bay native and Portland Trailblazers star Damian Lillard, who called him a “true Oakland legend.“
Chicago Bears cornerback Nahshon Wright, who played junior college football under Beam, paid tribute to him on Sunday after making an interception in the Bears’ 19-17 win at Minnesota.
“He was watching over me,” Wright said. “It’s crazy. He called me the night before he passed and he told me that every game he watched, I just seemed to get a pick. So I just know he was behind me today.”