JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- One day after writing about student concerns over neighborhood crime, an Edward Waters College freshman was shot dead in a robbery outside his dormitory, officials said Thursday.

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Hours Before Shooting, Victim Submits Paper About Poor Campus Security Students Sad About Losing Friend; Angry With Violence

Johnathan Glenn, 18, a second-semester freshman business major from Chicago, died at Shands Jacksonville Medical Center.

Glenn was shot after refusing to give up his basketball jersey, witnesses told police. He and other students were accosted on a street between two dorms at the small school.

On Wednesday afternoon, Glenn turned in an opinion piece to a communications professor voicing worries about campus safety.

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 was a small, Christian college.

"It was a small university. We thought he'd be safer," she said.

She said the last time she spoke with her son was Tuesday, when he called to wish her a happy birthday.

Glenn was shot several times. Police do not have a suspect, spokesman Ken Jefferson said.

While students were initially asked not to speak to the media, they did express concern about the amount of violence in the area around Edward Waters College.

Students told Channel 4's Hetal Gandhi they are putting together a petition to present to the school president asking for some action to curtain violence in the area.

"It's going to the boiling point. We've got to something about the violence," Hall said. "We have to join together as a village and fight this. The violence has to stop."

Channel 4 learned from police records that, since January of this year, there have been 18 reported shootings and four people shot in the EWC campus area. This was the first killing in that immediate area this year.

Crime Reported in Edward Waters Area Past 4 Months: 18 Reported shootings 4 People shot 14 Robberies

College President Jimmy Jenkins Sr. said the school has been making improvements to its security system.

"We feel that we have improved security over the years and continue to improve security," Jenkins said. "I think this college is as safe as any college campus in America."

Student Talya Taylor of Orange Park wrote Jenkins after the shooting and asked for better security.

"I am here to receive an education, not to battle with the neighborhood problems, drug addicts and thugs," she wrote.

The private college has 1,300 predominantly African-American students. It was founded in 1866 to offer newly freed slaves an education and is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church.