A man lit the first candle at 7:12 p.m. outside the Power House Family Worship Center.
About 40 others followed during a vigil for Robert Dentmond, who was killed March 20 in a standoff with police.
Montrae McCray, 16, said he spent most of his summer with Dentmond, often playing basketball.
McCray said he remembers the way Dentmond would toss backward shots at the hoop and make a habit of goofing off.
Monday morning, he heard the news.
“I couldn’t believe it — I thought it was all a dream, but it wasn’t,” he said.
They last spoke in December, when the two tried to plan Dentmond’s birthday party. If McCray were to see Dentmond again, he may be at a loss for words.
“I really don’t know — I’d probably just give him a hug,” he said.
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Bishop Leo Robinson spoke of strength in the face of tragedy as he addressed the crowd Monday evening.
“We are here today to support the family, the community — to keep the unity,” he said.
Robinson said he hopes to build a “life center” at the church sometime this year, but he needs money. The center would offer after-school care such as tutoring, sports and job application assistance, he said.
“This is our goal here at Power House,” he said. “We’re reaching out to people that we don’t know but we care about.”
Robinson said he hopes the church can help prevent such incidents from happening again and that memories of Dentmond will live in those who knew him.
At 7:26 p.m., the candles were extinguished.
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Eight days after Dentmond’s death, Sherry Maguire walked into her eighth-grade reading class.
She expected to start a new lecture with her students, who instead wanted to talk about Sunday’s shooting. Some were confused as to why police shot the teenager when he showed signs of being suicidal, Maguire said.
“They were all very, very crushed — very crushed by the whole thing,” she said.
Several of her students, who are mostly black, personally knew Dentmond.
For Maguire, a language arts teacher at Kanapaha Middle School, Dentmond’s death and the topic of systemic racism are new classroom discussions. She said a 14-year-old girl recalled the first day of school last year, when she walked into an advanced science class and the teacher immediately scoffed.
“The assumption was you’re a little black kid — you’re not in advanced science,” Maguire said.
Fifteen minutes into Maguire’s class Monday morning, most of her students cried, she said. They were angry and confused. After reading about the shooting, Maguire said she came to the disturbing realization that law enforcement officers followed their training when they shot Dentmond.
Maguire said Sunday’s shooting is part of the larger issue of systemic oppression in black communities.
“When you peel back the layers, is this racist? F— yeah. F— yeah, it’s racist,” she said.
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Jennifer Appel, Dentmond’s adoptive mother, held a purple and white bouquet at the vigil.
She stood alongside four of Dentmond’s siblings and his cousin. Appel said she was taking the loss one day at a time. In the meantime, community support is welcome, she said.
“It means a lot,” she said. “The number-one goal is to make sure it doesn’t happen to anybody else’s child.”
@martindvassolo
mvassolo@alligator.org
Jennifer Appel mourns her son, Robert Dentmond, who died at a Gainesville apartment building last week, at Powerhouse Church on Monday night. About 30 people, including both family and strangers, showed up for the candlelit service.
