BIANCA’S STORY
ROAD-RAGE VICTIM’S FAMILY TALKS OF WHAT THEY LOST
Bianca Roberson is seen in her senior portrait for Rustin High School. The 18-year-old was killed in a road-rage incident in West Goshen.
As hard as it was to return the precious “dorm box,” it’s now just a piece of the all-consuming, all-toofamiliar grief Michelle Roberson has felt since June 28. That was the day she lost her precious daughter, 18-year-old Bianca Nikol Roberson, in a fatal roadrage shooting.
Michelle Roberson, 54, of Westtown Township in Chester County, was excited as she began to track the package at the onset of summer. Included was a single-bed-size comforter in Bianca’s favorite shade of purple and some blue, along with other amenities for her impending move to Jacksonville University, in Jacksonville, Fla. Mother and daughter had made the selection on an app from the university – another in Michelle Roberson’s trove of cherished memories.
Knowing the large box would be waiting for Bianca when she pulled into the driveway of their Coventry Village townhouse in the late afternoon of June 28, Michelle Roberson was almost giddy over her surprise. But Bianca didn’t make it home to open it.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine anything like this,” said Michelle, a nurse in Delaware County. After losing her son, 22-year-old Mykel James Rowley, to a heart condition in 2013, she truly believed her pain would lessen. Instead, it has doubled. “I can’t believe he is gone. For her to be gone, no … no, it’s like a nightmare still,” Michelle said as tears streamed down her cheeks last Wednesday, the eve of a court proceeding where she and Bianca’s father, Rodney Roberson Sr., came face-toface with David Desper, the Trainer man accused in the deadly shoot-and-run incident on Route 100 in West Goshen.
“I don’t even know who I am right now. I am just existing,” Michelle said Wednesday night. “They were my breath, my reason to get up … I’m the mom of no children now.”
College bound
As Bianca’s friends anxiously count down the days before they leave for colleges and universities in photographs and messages posted by the droves on social media, her mother hasn’t been looking at Facebook nearly as often.
“I am happy for all of them but it’s hard. I am hurting,” said Michelle, who was as proud as Bianca was excited when she was accepted to JU to pursue a degree in criminal justice.
“It should be Bianca. She should be here,” her mother said.
Bianca, who resided with her mother and her maternal grandmother, Josephine Perry, was eager to experience the freedoms and challenges of dorm life, her mother said. Through Facebook and phone calls,
“He just took her dreams. He didn’t have that right. I can’t get her back. I need to get her back and I can’t. I need to comfort her and I can’t. I’m her mom and I can’t do that.”
— Michelle Roberson
Bianca had already connected with another incoming freshman, Kayla McGhee from Peoria, Ill., and the two had decided to share room in North Hall. Michelle and Kayla continue to keep in touch.
Even more than looking forward to being on her own, her parents said Bianca was happy to be moving closer toward achieving her dream of being a forensic specialist for the FBI.
“She was focused on her future and nothing was going to get in her way,” said Bianca’s father, proudly adding that his daughter had received a four-
year merit scholarship for JU, one of four schools to which she applied and one of three where she had been accepted. She also was accepted to Coastal Carolina and the University of Georgia.
“We planned to leave for Florida on Wednesday (Aug. 23),” a road trip that Michelle said last week would have also included Bianca’s grandmother. Albeit bittersweet, the three generations of women had been talking about Bianca’s move to Jacksonville for months, and the tight-knit group was excited about a pit stop in Georgia, where they planned to visit one of Bianca’s uncles on her mother’s side.
The would-be JU Dolphin was supposed to check in to the campus in north Florida by Friday, and her classes would have started on Aug. 28.
For Bianca’s parents, Aug. 28 will now serve only to mark two months since their beautiful daughter’s death.
Every Wednesday since that fateful afternoon, Michelle can’t help but watch, and wait, as the clock strikes 5:31.
“That’s when she was shot,” her mother said.
Stolen dreams
Divorced since 2006, Michelle and Rodney Roberson managed to become amicable co-parents – thanks to Bianca.
“Our divorce wasn’t pleasant,” Rodney admitted. “Bianca didn’t like the way I was talking to her mother, and she set me straight. Because of the love we had for her, it made everything calm down.”
Rodney, a 57-year-old merchant seaman, is also the father of four other adult children, two sons in Philadelphia and two daughters in New Jersey.
Bianca was devoted to family, and she especially loved being her daddy’s girl.
“If I had a favorite, Bianca was it,” her father said.
The idea of facing their daughter’s alleged killer was not something either of Bianca’s parents was looking forward to doing. Rodney had ordered T-shirts with the image of Bianca’s face on the front for family members and friends to wear as they gathered at the Chester County Government Services Center last week. They also had bracelets inscribed with the words: “Bianca Roberson, a rose in God’s garden,” and a banner that read, “Justice for Bianca Nikol Roberson who was murdered on Wednesday, June 28, 2017.”
”I don’t know what my reaction will be when I see him, the guy who held the gun that shot my daughter. I know I’m not going to do anything stupid,” Rodney said of Desper, who waived his hearing Thursday and was held over for trial on charges of first-degree murder and related offenses in the apparent road rage case.
Rodney had little time for any reaction. Desper waived the hearing during the brief proceeding before Magisterial District Judge William Kraut of West Goshen.
Desper, a construction contractor, allegedly fired the shot that struck Roberson in the head as they both drove on Route 100 toward the entrance to Route 202. Desper fled, touching off a multi-state manhunt for the driver of a red Chevrolet Silverado pickup seen fleeing the scene in surveillance video. Authorities eventually traced the truck to Desper, as well as a bullet fragment from the gun he had a permit to carry.
“We are feeling the pain of something senseless he did. Now, we have to live with it,” the emotional father said Wednesday night.
“He just took her dreams. He didn’t have that right,” Michelle said. “I can’t get her back. I need to get her back and I can’t. I need to comfort her and I can’t. I’m her mom and I can’t do that.
“And he’s still here,” she continued through more tears. “He gets to talk to his parents … to hug them. He is 28. She is just 18, just a baby.”
After Mykel’s death, Michelle became overprotective of Bianca.
“Mykel had muscular dystrophy and it affected his heart,” she said. He died on Oct. 24 – a week after Bianca’s birthday, on Oct. 17.
“I didn’t want anything to happen to her, and it did anyway,” Michelle said.
The siblings had been close. Beyond all the fun she was having on her graduation night from Bayard Rustin High School on June 6, Bianca felt her own deep loss.
“She was crying because her brother wasn’t there to see her,” their mother said.
“It’s going to be tough this year,” Michelle said, referring to a new list of “firsts” without Bianca.
“I am going to miss out on her ‘first’ to go to college … she was so excited,” she said.
Mother and daughter’s last conversation was over their cell phones, just minutes after they parted from a quick shopping spree at the Main Street Shopping Center in Exton. They had also been joined by Perry. All three women had driven to the shopping center in separate cars.
Michelle said she and her daughter were still in the parking lot when they briefly conversed.
“If only we had stayed longer in the store,” she said, her voice fading to a near whisper.
Old soul
Among Bianca’s last pur-
chases was 3M tape – which she planned to use to affix her initials – BNR – on the wall in her dorm.
“We put all the bags in Bianca’s car,” her mother said, referring to the 2009 Chevy Malibu the family bought for Bianca from CarMax for her 16th birthday.
“Bianca didn’t ask for a lot but when she did she asked for big things, like a car,” her mother said, adding that Bianca had picked out the car when she got her permit.
“She got everything she wanted,” Michelle Roberson said. “I don’t call it spoiled. I call it loved.”
But Bianca was willing to work for things she wanted. She got her first job at McDonald’s at the age of 15. After two weeks, she traded in fast food for a dietary aide position at the White Horse Village retirement community in Delaware County.
“I have a stack of letters and cards from the residents there who loved Bianca,” Michelle said.
Friends and strangers young and old, too many to count, have reached out to the Robersons in support, beginning at a vigil held two days after her death. They’ve heard from teachers who had known Bianca over the years.
“Bianca changed me, and how I was going to teach,” one educator told Michelle.
They also received a resolution from the state House of Representatives.
“Bianca was an honest girl. She was fair with other people. She didn’t discriminate. She didn’t have anything negative to say about anybody. She was always positive,” Rodney Roberson said.
In high school, Bianca was on the honor roll and was a member of the Black Student Union. At graduation, she received the Knights of Columbus Character Award.
“Bianca was our savethe-world child. If a parent put a child out, Bianca would sneak them into our house,” Michelle said. When she confronted her, Bianca would say something like, “Mom, wouldn’t you want someone to do the same for me?”
Bianca once saw a car accident and asked her mother if they could stop to help. If she saw anyone dining alone, her first instinct was to invite them to the family table.
For those and many other reasons, Michelle believed Bianca was an “old soul.”
As a newborn, Bianca cried a lot. She always wanted to be with her mom and dad, an early sign of her social nature, they said.
Barely a toddler, Bianca surprised her parents one night when she climbed out of the crib and made an appearance in their bedroom.
“She was being newsy. It’s been that way her whole life,” her dad said, laughing at the memory.
Michelle agreed, recalling that any conversation she would have with family and friends, Bianca would be there to hear every detail.
“That’s why she wanted to work for the FBI. She wanted to know everything,” her mother said. But forensics wasn’t always Bianca’s dream. At first she wanted to be a pediatrician, then an elementary school teacher, followed by a lawyer.
Bianca, who grew to 6 feet, was always tall for her age.
“People always thought she was older than she was,” her mother said.
Over the years, she was a Girl Scout, a cheerleader and played basketball. She took lessons for flute, violin, clarinet and guitar. She was also an artist.
From the ages of 2 to 12, Bianca took dancing lessons, beginning at Touch of Class in Broomall.
“She loved to dance,” her father said.
As a young girl, Bianca would knock on the neighbors’ doors and ask if any kids in the house could come out and play. If the children couldn’t, she asked for the dog.
“She would come into the house to get three popsicles and then come back and grab four more. That’s why I always kept snacks in the house,” her mother said.
“She shared everything. She never saw color. Everybody was her friend,” her father said.
“One time during junior year, she left her own class to join a friend in her class because she was having a problem with a teacher,” her father said. “When the teacher asked Bianca where she belonged, Bianca said, ‘Right here.’”
Michelle said that was the type of behavior that would get Bianca in trouble.
“Mom, she needed me,” Bianca later explained. “I’m not going to let her be alone.”
“If you didn’t feel like talking, Bianca would make you talk,” her mother said, attributing her outgoing nature to her father.
“Bianca tried everything,” her mother said. “Bianca was her own person. She left an impression.”
Because Bianca was not a fighter and lacked street savvy, her dad often worried about her.
“I think about her every day, 24-7,” Rodney said.
Rodney last saw Bianca on Sunday, June 25. Bianca and a few of her friends joined him and his wife, Basimah Roberson, for an afternoon of bowling.
“It was Bianca’s first time bowling with me,” he said. “She didn’t know to bowl. But she actually won a couple games,” he said.
Both Michelle and Bianca teased him when he ordered a 20 x 24 size of Bianca’s senior portrait.
“Thank God he did,” Michelle said. She’s planning to get one.
For some comfort, Rodney said he still sends text messages to Bianca. Michelle does, too, and she has also called her phone.
The Monday night before the accident, Michelle and Bianca talked about her future. Bianca was a little nervous. For some reason, Michelle was holding a pen.
“God gave me the pen to write the first book of your life. I’m passing the pen on to you to write the next book of your life,” she told her daughter.
Sad goodbyes
The text announcing Bianca’s acceptance to JU was sent to Michelle’s phone. She can still hear the excitement in Bianca’s voice when she called after receiving the forwarded message.
“Mom! No way!” Michelle recalled Bianca saying in a voice almost singing.
Tom Taggart, chief admissions officer for JU, recalled last week how impressed he was by Bianca when they first met at a college fair in Philadelphia in October of 2016. She was accompanied by her mother and grandmother.
“I found her to be vibrant and energized,” Taggart said. Taggart recalled that Bianca, who expressed an interest in criminal justice and psychology, submitted her JU application the very next day. That he would be one of three speakers at Bianca’s funeral July 7 still stuns him.
“We believed we were about to get a lot better having Bianca in our community. She was an exceptional young lady, which was a testament to her parents and family with the way she was raised,” Taggart said.
An estimated crowd of 800 people gathered in and around St. Paul’s Baptist Church in West Chester to pay their respects to Bianca and her family. Some people never made it inside.
West Chester Area School District Superintendent Jim Scanlon and Bayard Rustin High School Assistant Principal Joe DiAntonio also spoke at the service. A scholarship has been set up in Bianca’s name through the West Chester Area School District.
Bianca was laid to rest in Philadelphia Memorial Park in Frazer, with Mykel.
Rodney Roberson said he will miss playing Phase 10 card games with his daughter. He will never forget her love for pizza, cookies-ncream ice cream and fried chicken, not to mention her penchant for correcting everyone’s English.
Never again will Michelle awaken to the morning ritual she shared with her daughter.
“Every morning Bianca would say, ‘Good morning, beautiful,’ and I’d say, ‘Good morning, gorgeous,’” Michelle said.
Just be kind
Bianca Nikol Roberson would have been one of about 600 members of the Jacksonville University Class of 2021. The university received 5,000 applications.
Michelle and her mother attended what would have been Bianca’s orientation on July 12. She knew then that Bianca had made the perfect choice. Bianca had liked the curriculum, as well as the idea of living near the beach.
“It would have been such a good fit,” Michelle said.
In a release to the Jacksonville University community on July 14, university President Tim Cost announced the Just Be Kind initiative inspired by Bianca, in addition to a scholarship in her name.
“Having faced sorrow and loss in her own life, Bianca wrote that we should treat every day as a privilege,” Cost stated, referencing Bianca’s application essay.
The initiative puts an emphasis on acts of kindness, community service, and outreach.
“As we reflect on the loss of one of our own, we take her words to heart … and most importantly, to making a difference in the lives of others,” Cost stated.
For her Just Be Kind pledge, Kayla McGhee promised that she would spend her time at JU making Bianca proud, living life for the two of them.
Back in Illinois, Kayla had just gotten off work at Chipotle when she saw the news about Bianca’s death on Facebook. She didn’t want to believe that she’d lost the first college friend she had made.
The two had started talking on Facebook in early April. Among their many topics of conversation: Prom gowns.
“At first, we were just getting to know each other. I realized she was a really funny person and we connected as true friends,” said Kayla, who plans to study marine science. They decided to be dorm mates in late May or early June.
“I just really want to dedicate my years to her because she didn’t get the chance to be at JU,” Kayla said. “She really made an impact on my soul.”
When they finally met, Kayla had planned to give Bianca a big hug.
“I never got to do that,” she said.
Kayla will now be rooming with another girl who had also befriended Bianca.
“I realized we should be dorm mates because Bianca brought us together,” she said.
“We believed we were about to get a lot better having Bianca in our community. She was an exceptional young lady, which was a testament to her parents and family with the way she was raised.”
— Tom Taggart, chief admissions officer for JU