She had lived in her Miami Gardens apartment for 20 years. Then her son was shot to death
Robin Gore was asleep in bed when her son was shot to death. By the time she got to him, police had already roped off the area in her apartment complex where his body lay on the ground in the dark.
Taborez White, her youngest child, was 19.
“They wouldn’t let me near him,” Gore said. “They said he was shot at close range.”
The last time she saw him, earlier that night last July, she told him to stay home.
“I said, ‘Don’t go out, you don’t need to be with these boys,’” Gore said. “He said, ‘Mom, you don’t know what you’re talking about, I’ll be fine.’
“But my son was associating with the wrong kind of people.”
The police tell Gore that Taborez’s case is an open investigation. They have no leads.
“The police don’t call me. I call them,” she said. “All I know is that it wasn’t drugs.”
Two days after her son was killed, Gore, 64, was notified that her lease would be terminated. She would have to move out of the Miami Gardens apartment complex where she had lived for 20 years.
“I work 12 hours a day. What trouble can I cause?” said Gore, a school bus driver. “I raised three kids there.”
The news that she would have to find a new place to live compounded her pain.
“Robin had suffered a traumatic loss and instead of showing compassion she received notice of non-renewal of her lease because of the way her son was murdered, which was no fault of the victim or his mother,” said Denise Brown, CEO of the RJT Foundation. “This happens way too often. Families who are grieving are re-traumatized by society.”
Brown nominated Gore for the Miami Herald’s annual holiday Wish Book, which tells the stories of South Florida people in need.
Brown and two other mothers founded the RJT Foundation in 2012 after their three sons were killed. They named the organization in memory of the three young men, who were friends: Roman Edwin Bradley, JaQuevin De’ Nahjee Myles, and Trevin D’Shawn Reddick.
RJT, also known as Restore Joy and Trust, offers bereavement support sessions, recovery workshops, care packages and scholarships. The Reading Warrior program enhances children’s reading skills with instruction, art classes and field trips. The Etiquette Glows program teaches 10-16-year-old girls how to be confident and safe.
“We empower families who have been impacted by senseless violence,” Brown said.
Gore said Brown stepped in to help when she needed it most and “she’s always calling to check on me and talk to me.”
Gore and her 21-year-old daughter, Jaquandra White, moved into an efficiency apartment in Miami Gardens. Jaquandra works at Winn-Dixie. Gore’s oldest, Shatara Lee, 31, lives in Atlanta. Taborez had dropped out of Norland High School but had recently earned his GED and was interested in a career in computer animation.
“He was very smart,” Gore said. “He could sit down and take a test without studying and get an A.”
Gore adopted her three children when their biological mother could no longer care for them because of her addiction to drugs.
“They are my brother’s grandchildren,” she said. “They needed me.”
Gore has been mother to many during her 36 years as a bus driver for Miami-Dade County Public Schools. She’s currently driving route 2223, which includes Andover Middle School and Carol City High. For 36 years, she’s been waking up at 4 a.m.
“I got the job because it would give me time with my own kids during holidays,” she said. “I have a lot of kids who remember me, who come up to me to say, ‘Hello, Ms. Gore, I was on your bus.’”
She often drives students with special needs, or students who are learning to speak English.
“They are not as rude as the regular kids,” she said. “Over the years, the kids’ behavior has gotten worse. They are disrespectful, a lot of cursing. You never see the parents. And when you have to write up a kid, the parents make excuses and say their child would never do that.
“I try to show all of them a little bit of love.”
This holiday season, Gore and her daughter are in need of furniture for their small apartment — a TV stand, two dressers and two end tables. They could also use a set of pots and pans. And Gore would feel relieved if she could get her car brakes fixed.
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HOW TO HELP
To help this Wish Book nominee and the more than 100 other nominees who are in need this year:
▪ To donate, use the coupon found in the newspaper or pay securely online through www.MiamiHerald.com/wishbook
▪ For more information, call 305-376-2906 or email Wishbook@MiamiHerald.com
▪ The most requested items are often laptops and tablets for school, furniture, and accessible vans
▪ Read all Wish Book stories on www.MiamiHerald.com/wishbook
This story was originally published December 30, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
