"Maybe I'll be underground by tomorrow...don't believe me, I'll show you."
"I'm finna just shoot myself and get it over with, bye."
"No one cares right now...then I'm finna act like I was never here."
Those were some of the last text messages that 16-year-old Robert Dentmond sent Sunday night before he was fatally shot by Alachua County Sheriff deputies and Gainesville police officers after he summoned them to Majestic Oaks Apartments in West Gainesville, where he was wielding what later turned out to be a replica of an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.
Dentmond was shot after he refused orders to put it down.
Detectives from the ACSO Criminal Investigations Division found text messages sent from Dentmond's phone before his call to 911. Before deputies and officers met Dentmond at the scene, the last texts he sent said, "I'm finna have the police shoot me... I just called them and told them I have a gun."
ACSO and GPD responded to his 911 call at about 10:07 p.m. The first ACSO patrol unit arrived at Majestic Oaks at 10:11 p.m. and found Dentmond. The patrol unit supervisor requested for additional units for backup along with a ballistic shield, which are designed to deflect bullets.
Deputies and officers repeatedly told Dentmond to drop his weapon, which he initially dropped but retrieved. He then began walking toward the apartment complex, where deputies and officers warned him that he would be shot if he did not drop it.
At 10:40 p.m., shots were fired.
The investigation was turned over to the FDLE. After the department's investigation ends, the ACSO Office of Professional Standards and GPD's Internal Affairs will also conduct their own investigation into the incident. The ACSO deputies and GPD officers involved in the shooting will be placed on temporary administrative duties until all investigations have ended.