Speaker 1: What you're about to hear in the following episode does
Speaker 1: not implicate the Chicago Police in the murder of Courtney Copeland.
Speaker 1: When my son Courtney was twenty one years old, he
Speaker 1: got a BMW convertible. He loved that car like it
Speaker 1: was his girlfriend. He would talk to it like good mooney,
Speaker 1: hello baby. The first time Baby rolled into our driveway,
Speaker 1: it was late at night, Courtney had drip top by.
Speaker 1: Courtney had the music blasting all the way up. Courtney.
Speaker 1: It's like like a little black party, you know, in
Speaker 1: the middle of my driveway. He had the top down.
Speaker 1: It wasn't even that pot outside, but of course he
Speaker 1: had the top down about them on. It was a
Speaker 1: beautiful moment, and that was probably one of the most
Speaker 1: happiest moments I've seen him. Robber robbery down a granted
Speaker 1: central gunman just said he was shot. Okay, look at me, am,
Speaker 1: I throw into okay right away. But not even one
Speaker 1: year later, my son wound up with a bullet in
Speaker 1: his back outside of Chicago police station. And there are
Speaker 1: still so many unanswered questions about what led to the
Speaker 1: death of two year old Courtney Copeland. Family member say
Speaker 1: Copeland was on his way to a friend's house when
Speaker 1: he was shot through his car window. A bullet hit
Speaker 1: his bag. He managed to flag down a police car
Speaker 1: in front of the twenty five District station and was
Speaker 1: rushed to a hospital. The wound was fatal. There's what
Speaker 1: you hear on the news that Courtney got shot, drove
Speaker 1: himself to a police station, where officers did everything they
Speaker 1: could to help him. His mother's heart tonight left in pieces,
Speaker 1: and then there's a troop. I believe that not enough
Speaker 1: has been done for thought of Courtney murder, Like, what
Speaker 1: would you like that I haven't done. I personally would
Speaker 1: have went back and reinterviewed everybody to make sure that
Speaker 1: we could. My name is Chaparral Wells. I'm Courtney Copeland's mom,
Speaker 1: and this is somebody every body so by every day,
Speaker 1: no bide nothing. No, that's right. Chicago police have one
Speaker 1: of the lowest murder soft rates in the country, and
Speaker 1: it's even lower if you're black. So when it came
Speaker 1: time to find out who killed my son, I knew
Speaker 1: I'd have to figure it out on my own. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take you with me step by step in my investigation.
Speaker 1: But first let me tell you about my son. You
Speaker 1: need to know who he was in life, because we're
Speaker 1: going to spend a lot of time talking about his death.
Speaker 1: Courtney was born a day after my twenty one birthday
Speaker 1: on New Year's Eve, and they just still remember him
Speaker 1: sleeping on my chest sometimes. That's my mom, Reneme. And
Speaker 1: his favorite thing was warm milk, and he talked about
Speaker 1: that and tell him the dunk Grandma. I still remember
Speaker 1: the warm milk you give me when I was a baby,
Speaker 1: and that this stuff. They were so sweet. What do
Speaker 1: you remember about the early years? He would have like
Speaker 1: little jokes and stuff. Here's my husband, Corney's father. He's
Speaker 1: raised him since he was four years old. You know,
Speaker 1: like in fact, like the first joke he had told me,
Speaker 1: he was like, what do you call uh stolen cheese?
Speaker 1: I said what he said, not your cheese. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm like it was kind of corny, but it was
Speaker 1: still funny. At the same time, he had y'all both
Speaker 1: have cornball jokes. That's what y'all got alone. Here he
Speaker 1: is goofing off with some of his friends. How are
Speaker 1: you doing today? What's your name? Corney's pretending to be
Speaker 1: a contestant on American Idol he in the seventh grade,
Speaker 1: right at the age where his voice is changed. Makes
Speaker 1: sense right now, but it will. It was some little
Speaker 1: loose how to make it fail in regulations are going
Speaker 1: to Hollywood. Courtney sure knew how to turn on the
Speaker 1: charm to get what he wanted. And Corney was kind
Speaker 1: of a malipulator with you. You know. It was like, uh,
Speaker 1: he asked me for twenty dollars, and then turned around
Speaker 1: and ask you for twenty dollars, and then he was
Speaker 1: asking him for twenty dollars, and now he got sixty dollars,
Speaker 1: got sixty dollar. That's how he would do it, and
Speaker 1: I wish I could do it for him now. Courtney
Speaker 1: was energetic and out going. I mean he was so handsome.
Speaker 1: He had this carmel color skin and the most incredible smile.
Speaker 1: He spent all his money, and I mean all his
Speaker 1: money on food, clothes, haircuts, and shoes. My mom just
Speaker 1: came back from Wisconsin. She bought me this hat and
Speaker 1: said go. After Corney died, I went through his phone.
Speaker 1: Look uncle, all those videos and photos and social media.
Speaker 1: It made me feel like he was still right there
Speaker 1: with me. Really. We called him Gucci in high school.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was because he was fleet
Speaker 1: or because he looked like Gucci man, but we just
Speaker 1: we called him Gucci. One of his friends was a
Speaker 1: kid named Chancellor Bennett. You might know this guy has
Speaker 1: chanced the rapper. I got suspend it. You got to
Speaker 1: spending the cheap and a hundred blood sports teen four
Speaker 1: hundred minutes fans run in and fansy hands from Mr
Speaker 1: Bennet that racket o. But yeah, I met Gui and
Speaker 1: I was like in summer school. You know what I'm
Speaker 1: saying not to and I don't hope. I hope that
Speaker 1: doesn't have like a negative connotation and stuff. But like
Speaker 1: I mean, I was in summing school. Everybody goes to
Speaker 1: something school. So yeah, he would free style with me,
Speaker 1: well you know, kick it after after school and stuff
Speaker 1: and just be rapping walking down the street and be
Speaker 1: boxing and stuff like that. Courtney would always tell me, Mom,
Speaker 1: this guy is gonna be huge. That was like a
Speaker 1: thing at the time. Like I was passing out CDs,
Speaker 1: Like I was burning c ds and like standing outside
Speaker 1: of Columbia and he would be standing out there with me,
Speaker 1: or like he would take c ds and from me
Speaker 1: and give them to other people and stuff too. They
Speaker 1: went to Jones College Prep. It's one of the top
Speaker 1: public schools in Chicago. Courtney played on the basketball team
Speaker 1: and he helped them win a city championship. When he
Speaker 1: was seventeen or eighteen, he got a tattoo of a
Speaker 1: basketball across his chest and it says ball too. I fall.
Speaker 1: I've always hated tattoos because I'm a religious person and
Speaker 1: I believe tattoos are a desecration of the body. When
Speaker 1: I first saw the tattoo, I literally cried and I said,
Speaker 1: you just want to hurt your mama, don't you. Then
Speaker 1: he got more tattoos, including one that says Mama's boy,
Speaker 1: how do you like that? Courtney got a partial scholarship
Speaker 1: to play ball in Indiana, but we could only afford
Speaker 1: to help him so much, so he had to come
Speaker 1: back home after one semester. He got a job as
Speaker 1: a janitor and a Dunkin Donuts. Gotta get ready for work,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, put all my pants, put on my shoes,
Speaker 1: put on my shirt, ready for work. He was wandering
Speaker 1: through life until a friend recruited him into the business
Speaker 1: called World Ventures. Corney's job was to sign up members
Speaker 1: for discount vacations all over the world. Courtney was determined
Speaker 1: to go to the top. And that's when I really
Speaker 1: show Courtney turning into a man. That's my mom again.
Speaker 1: Because of his positive mental attitude that he developed, his
Speaker 1: change of thinking helped people treated him. He became more
Speaker 1: of a leader now and just one year, Courtney signed
Speaker 1: up so many people. The company helped him lease that
Speaker 1: BMW as a bonus. It is World Ventures, Wings and Wheels.
Speaker 1: Step one, get your wings, Step two, Get your Wheels.
Speaker 1: Courtney asked me if I was signed for the car
Speaker 1: for him, and I told him no way. If he
Speaker 1: wanted to get someone else to help him, that was
Speaker 1: on him. So he convinced his friend Christian Hernandez to
Speaker 1: co sign for Courtney. The BMW was validation and we
Speaker 1: all loved that car. His cousin Sean, who's a rapper,
Speaker 1: used it in his music video money Him addicted to
Speaker 1: the all I'm a tennis cast, All I noise. Count
Speaker 1: that dog, Count that dog count that you know. It
Speaker 1: was just like a typical rap video, Sexy girls dancing
Speaker 1: all around and the guys and money and things corneys
Speaker 1: in the video to count that dog. Yeah, count that dog.
Speaker 1: Corney was living the high life. Just a few months
Speaker 1: before he died. He went on a trip to Cancun. Hey,
Speaker 1: I supposed to be Dr Donald's right now, but I
Speaker 1: did something different. I say, yes, I stayed consistent. I
Speaker 1: worked hard. I mean, this was a trip of a lifetime.
Speaker 1: He was just like he was on top of the world.
Speaker 1: He did the Macarena in the hotel lobby, he went
Speaker 1: scuba diving, brow the jet ski. He was doing really,
Speaker 1: really well, getting close to moving out my basement and
Speaker 1: moving in with some friends. No, here's what I know
Speaker 1: about the last day of my son's life. Corney helped
Speaker 1: a friend move a sofa. He talked to my mom
Speaker 1: about becoming an in home caregiver. The application was due
Speaker 1: the next day. That day, I remember, I got my
Speaker 1: hair done, and that night I caught some of the
Speaker 1: Republican presidential debates. Never heard of this word. Look at
Speaker 1: those hands? Are they small hands? While I was watching that,
Speaker 1: Corney was given a presentation for World Ventures. Around midnight,
Speaker 1: Corney swung by pythons, his favorite piece of place. It's
Speaker 1: a couple of blocks from my house in Cicero, just
Speaker 1: outside of Chicago, and he ran into his friend Chris.
Speaker 1: The next day, we were supposed to go on the
Speaker 1: little road trip. We're gonna be there for the weekend,
Speaker 1: so we're preparing everything. Courtney show Chris this book he
Speaker 1: was reading. It was called Think and Grow Rich. He
Speaker 1: was already on chapter three. I always tell people this
Speaker 1: story because it felt weird because he left the parking
Speaker 1: right from Pythons and I didn't even get in my
Speaker 1: car yet. You know, usually I said, by somebody, I'll
Speaker 1: get in my car and I go. But I stood outside.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, that's crazy. You know. He hit the
Speaker 1: bonus of the car like he's happy. He's reading that book.
Speaker 1: But Courtney really wasn't headed home. It turns out he
Speaker 1: had this girlfriend, a co worker he was dating, and
Speaker 1: he was heading to see her. I replayed this nice
Speaker 1: so many times in my head. I wish I had
Speaker 1: texted him like I usually would do, to see when
Speaker 1: he'd be back home. Maybe then he would have just
Speaker 1: come back to the house. I don't know why I
Speaker 1: didn't check on him that night. I'm excited, man. Reason
Speaker 1: why is because you know, I understand that I'm God's
Speaker 1: highest form of creation. Before he drove into the city,
Speaker 1: Courtney posted on snapchat. He's in his car wearing a
Speaker 1: red hoodie under his pea coat. He looks so happy
Speaker 1: and hopeful that I wanted obtaining my life. I can
Speaker 1: do him. I just gotta believe in myself. His name
Speaker 1: on Snapchat was born Leader thirty four. Thirty four was
Speaker 1: Courtney's favorite number, and the night he died was March four, three,
Speaker 1: four hour after he posted on snapchat, my son was
Speaker 1: being rushed to the hospital. I am calling because I
Speaker 1: just received a patient here to our er. The hospital
Speaker 1: called the police in Cicero, where I live. And what's
Speaker 1: her name of His name is Courtney O. P L
Speaker 1: A N D. Want his mom advice that he's in
Speaker 1: the hospital. He was actually en route to I guess
Speaker 1: the police station nearby because he had been shot and
Speaker 1: then he came in by ambulance. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you want to tell her what the nature of the
Speaker 1: injury is yet, probably not trying to want to heed
Speaker 1: in the hospital. A little after two o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 1: the Ciero police came bamming on our door. When I
Speaker 1: opened the door, he asked me, did I know a
Speaker 1: Cortney Copeland. I was already thinking that this is bad.
Speaker 1: The police told us that Corney was in the hospital
Speaker 1: in Chicago, and that's it. And at that point before
Speaker 1: I remember, you're dropping to your knees, said Mom. I
Speaker 1: knew he did. They knew he's gonne. They just don't
Speaker 1: do the if they don't, you know. This is when
Speaker 1: someone did. I assumed that it had to be some
Speaker 1: type of auto accident because Corney was always known for
Speaker 1: texting and driving. I remember my husband, Brent, driving our
Speaker 1: families to Illinois Masonic Hospital. My mom, Courtney's sisters, my aunt,
Speaker 1: we were all there. We rolled in our town and
Speaker 1: Country minivan and it was in the middle of the
Speaker 1: night and I don't even recall any other cars being
Speaker 1: on the road. Right away, the staff wanted to take
Speaker 1: us to the family room, but I knew. I knew
Speaker 1: what the family room was. That's when they tell you
Speaker 1: that your kid is dead. And I didn't want to go.
Speaker 1: They sent in this nurse, a very kind nurse. She
Speaker 1: stayed with me, she held my hand to try to
Speaker 1: keep me calm. I had no idea then how important
Speaker 1: she would become to my investigation. That's when the doctor
Speaker 1: came out and told us the news, you know that
Speaker 1: he had died from a gunshot wound, and we were like, well,
Speaker 1: why why, what do you mean a gunshot wound? Who
Speaker 1: shot him? When the doctor said Courtney was shot, that
Speaker 1: was like an unbelievable We didn't hear anything else. Everybody
Speaker 1: drops to the floor, screaming, yelling okay, oh no, no, no,
Speaker 1: because that was the last thing that we would think
Speaker 1: Courtney would be involved in it, any form of shooting,
Speaker 1: because he was not that type of individual, okay, and
Speaker 1: he was a non violent person. He would really know
Speaker 1: he would not be involved in anyone there would him guns.
Speaker 1: The doctor told us that when Corney arrived, they opened
Speaker 1: up his chest to try to save him. I've been
Speaker 1: at the hospital for over an hour and I still
Speaker 1: hadn't seen my son, and you know, as a mother,
Speaker 1: you want to have that confirmation that this is indeed
Speaker 1: your child. They told me I couldn't see him until
Speaker 1: detectives got there, and I told him, I said, well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you right now. If I can't see
Speaker 1: my son, I'm gonna tear this whole hospital up. They
Speaker 1: finally let us see Courtney. He was on a hospital
Speaker 1: bed and the trauma unit m. After a few moments,
Speaker 1: I asked everyone to leave because I had to be
Speaker 1: with him. I had to be with him by myself.
Speaker 1: I began to touch him. His body was still warm.
Speaker 1: I caressed his face and kissed his forehead, and I
Speaker 1: told him I was sick. I'm sorry I wasn't there
Speaker 1: for you when you needed me the most. And I
Speaker 1: walked out of the room. And then it really hit me.
Speaker 1: The Corney was gone, and I just collapsed. Yeah. Corney's
Speaker 1: friends and our extended family were piling into the hospital
Speaker 1: waiting room. I remember two detectives coming in. They were
Speaker 1: white and middle aged, and they told us what they knew.
Speaker 1: They said Corney was shot in his car and drove
Speaker 1: himself to the police station. Corney jumped out of his
Speaker 1: car and flagged down an officer for help, but the
Speaker 1: car was still moving, so the officer told him to
Speaker 1: put it in park. So Corney hopped back into the
Speaker 1: car and put the car in park. And then they
Speaker 1: said that Corney ran over to the officer again and
Speaker 1: grabbed his arm and said I've been shot before collapsing.
Speaker 1: Then came the moment when felt something more than grief.
Speaker 1: I felt suspicious. See the detective said they wanted to
Speaker 1: ask me some questions, and their first one they asked
Speaker 1: me if Courtney was the owner of the BMW. Remember
Speaker 1: when I told you that Corney had to get a
Speaker 1: co signer for the car, Christian Hernandez. Christian's name was
Speaker 1: actually on the registration and not Cortney's. Courtney had been
Speaker 1: stopped before because of this, so when the police asked
Speaker 1: me if he was the real owner of the car,
Speaker 1: I started to think maybe this was a police stop
Speaker 1: gone wrong, you know, like Philando Castile up in Minnesota.
Speaker 1: Maybe the police stopped him after running his plates and
Speaker 1: seeing a black man driving a car registered in a
Speaker 1: Hispanics man's name. The first thing that Courtney's friends did
Speaker 1: is went looking for clues. They went to Belmont Craigan,
Speaker 1: the neighborhood where Courtney was shot. They saw skid marks
Speaker 1: and some broken glass on this corner near Catholic Church.
Speaker 1: They scooped up the glass and talked to a neighbor
Speaker 1: who said she heard gunshots. We put up reward posters
Speaker 1: all over the neighborhood so we would with the flyers
Speaker 1: and and we were on the radio, which anybody that
Speaker 1: can help us get injured. First, we offered a five
Speaker 1: thousand dollar reward, then a six thousand, then a sixty
Speaker 1: six hundred. In the end we put up ten thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: but we got no answers. We try to keep Courtney
Speaker 1: story alive in the news. Here I am on a
Speaker 1: local show called Jamaica Fun. Give us a little background
Speaker 1: of Courtney. What what? What did Courtney do? Corney? Was?
Speaker 1: I seen your sales rep and World Ventures travel industry
Speaker 1: and he was a rising member of the of the
Speaker 1: Chicagoland area, so he had I wasn't just trying to
Speaker 1: solve his case. I was also fighting to protect his name.
Speaker 1: Police Copeland was not a gang member. They can only
Speaker 1: guess right now why he was shot. He graduated. Police
Speaker 1: said he wasn't a game member. Why was that even
Speaker 1: a question? I had to do everything I could to
Speaker 1: protect his image. When reporters asked to use photos of him,
Speaker 1: I made sure he looked his best four. I just
Speaker 1: don't on the narrative to be negative about myself. I couldn't.
Speaker 1: He does he was not that that's my spear. Okay,
Speaker 1: she preferre We used the picture of him in the
Speaker 1: tux that's on his Facebook page. Ever did this to us?
Speaker 1: Uh as, did you turn yourself ins that you ask
Speaker 1: for forgiveness from God? Looking back at my face on
Speaker 1: TV that night he died, It's literally hard to believe
Speaker 1: that was even me. How many against to die, how
Speaker 1: many black children die Chicago. I remember being in so
Speaker 1: much pain, but I needed to find answers. That was
Speaker 1: the only way I knew how to keep going. A
Speaker 1: few people did come forward with tips. One guy actually
Speaker 1: told me he was driving by the police station and
Speaker 1: saw Courtney on the ground with cops just standing around him.
Speaker 1: This bystander basically told me when he looked at the scene,
Speaker 1: he felt that the police were doing something to him.
Speaker 1: And then when I began to press him, trying to
Speaker 1: get more information, and that's when he was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't really want to get involved. You know, you
Speaker 1: don't understand the police around here. They'll come after me.
Speaker 1: And then he finally told me, he was like, look,
Speaker 1: I have children and I can't risk my life to
Speaker 1: basically tell you what I saw. Then there was a
Speaker 1: toe truck driver. He took a video. It's hard to
Speaker 1: make out, but it looks like Courtney is laying on
Speaker 1: the ground outside the police station. The lights are flashing
Speaker 1: and no one is helping him. One of Courtney's friends,
Speaker 1: a world venture guy named June, says he got in
Speaker 1: touch with the toe truck driver I mean history, says
Speaker 1: his theory was that the police didn't That was That's
Speaker 1: the first thing that came out his mind. That's what
Speaker 1: he's been saying since the beginning. What the police told
Speaker 1: me is that they did everything they could to save him.
Speaker 1: But you know what, it just wasn't adding up. So
Speaker 1: I said to myself, I just got to bury my
Speaker 1: baby and lay him the rest, and then I'll find
Speaker 1: out what really happened. I needed some strength, so I
Speaker 1: turned to Courtney the only way I could. Any obstacle
Speaker 1: you know that you're going through with in your life today,
Speaker 1: Understand that God would never put you through anything that
Speaker 1: you cannot handle. The reason why they call it a
Speaker 1: past is because you already went through. Remember how I
Speaker 1: told you that. Since Courtney's death, I go through his phone.
Speaker 1: Guess how he had me listed uh with three exclamation
Speaker 1: points as an oh my mom's calling. And you know what,
Speaker 1: he was right to be afraid, because when I get
Speaker 1: onto something, I don't let up. And I'm putting the
Speaker 1: police on blast right now. I will find out the
Speaker 1: truth of what happened to my son, and when I do,
Speaker 1: the whole world will know it. Every bid by every day,
Speaker 1: No Bide, Deny Somebody is a co production of The
Speaker 1: Invisible Institute, The Intercept, Topic Studios and I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: in association with Tenderfoot TV. I'm chaparral Wells. This podcast
Speaker 1: is produced by Alison Flowers and Bill Heally. Sarah Geye
Speaker 1: is our story editor. Ellen Glover is our associate producer
Speaker 1: for The Invisible Institute. Jamie Calvin is executive producer for
Speaker 1: Topic Studios. Maria Zuckerman, Christie Gressman and Leeds al Malad
Speaker 1: are executive producers. Special thanks to Lizzie Jacobs for The Intercept.
Speaker 1: Roger Hodge, Deputy Editor, is supervising producer. Sound designed by
Speaker 1: Carl Scott and Bart Warshaw. Michael Raphael is our mixed engineer.
Speaker 1: Our theme song, Everybody Something Is by Chance the Rapper.
Speaker 1: Original music for the podcast by Nate Fox of The
Speaker 1: Social Experiment and Eric Butler. Additional reporting by Sam Steklow,
Speaker 1: Annie When, Khari Blackburn, Raje Sinclair, Henry Adams, Matilda Voyad,
Speaker 1: Dana Roso's Kellerher Frances McDonald, Diana Archmagian, Maddie Anderson, Andrew
Speaker 1: Fan and risa Apantaku. Translation support by Benny Hernandez Ocampo
Speaker 1: and Emma Perez. Fact checking by Noah Are Jenny Special
Speaker 1: thanks to Chris Rasmussen, Bennett Epstein, Matt Topic, David bralow In,
Speaker 1: Julie Wolf. We want to hear from you. Email us
Speaker 1: at info at somebody podcast dot com or leave us
Speaker 1: a voicemail at seven seven three to seven zero zero
Speaker 1: one two one. To learn more about this case and
Speaker 1: for links to additional materials, go to our show page
Speaker 1: at somebody podcast dot com. You can also find a
Speaker 1: list of everyone we want to think they're so many
Speaker 1: people helped us along the way.