Cash essy teen

East Beverly teen, 18, shot to death on Florida campus

An East Beverly family was mourning Thursday evening the loss of an 18-year-old college student shot to death during a robbery on a Florida campus.

Jonathan Glenn was shot several times early Thursday outside a dormitory at Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Fla., the Jacksonville sheriff's office said.

Wednesday afternoon, Glenn had turned in an opinion piece to a communications professor voicing worries about campus safety, the Florida Times-Union reported.

After listing campus crime statistics, he wrote: "These last two semesters safety procedures have not been that effective on campus, and it has terrified students."

His mother, Essy Glenn, said the family picked Edward Waters in part because it seemed safe.

"It was a small university. We thought he'd be safer," she said, adding that the last time she spoke with her son was Tuesday, when he called to wish her a happy birthday.

Glenn was approached Thursday by a person who asked him for money, forced him to hand over cash and then ran from the crime scene shortly after midnight, according to police reports.

Officers found Glenn lying in the street. No suspects were in custody, authorities said.

The Jacksonville Police Department's homicide division, which is investigating, declined comment late Thursday.

Jimmy Jenkins Sr., president of the 1,300-student, private, four- year school affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, said the shooting marked a sad day for the community and the college. He said the school had been working on security improvements.

Glenn was a student athlete who attended Morgan Park High School and graduated last year from Chicago High School for Agricultural Science, where he was on the football team, Chicago Public Schools officials said.

Frances Phillips, the family's next-door neighbor, spoke highly of Glenn and said she was "shocked" to hear he had been killed.

"I talked to him [during spring break], and he said he liked the school, but he did not care for the area too much, and he was going to come back home for summer vacation," Phillips said.

"He was a very nice young man. . . . He used to shovel the snow for me in the winter."

Contributing: Rosalind Rossi and AP