Speaker 1: Pushkin. I remember that night like it was yesterday. I
Speaker 1: could still hear the thunderous beat in my head, and
Speaker 1: I remember being so startled out of my sleep because
Speaker 1: I've never experienced such a bamming at my door, so
Speaker 1: it shocked me, and I knew that something bad had happened.
Speaker 1: That's Chaparral Wells describing the moment when Chicago police officers
Speaker 1: showed up on her doorstep in the middle of the
Speaker 1: night her oldest child, her twenty two year old son,
Speaker 1: Courtney Copeland, had been fatally shot. Chaparl needed answers about
Speaker 1: what had happened in Courtney's final moments, but it soon
Speaker 1: became clear she wasn't going to get them unless she
Speaker 1: took matters into her own hands. It wasn't by choice
Speaker 1: that I took this journey in investigating my son's murder.
Speaker 1: I had no other option. Chaparral did not know at
Speaker 1: the time that she spent the next five years trying
Speaker 1: to figure out what exactly had happened to Courtney. On
Speaker 1: today's episode, a mother channels her grief into justice for
Speaker 1: her son. I'm Maya Shunker, and this is a slight
Speaker 1: change of plans. A show about who we are and
Speaker 1: who we become in the face of a big change.
Speaker 1: Chaparral was grieving the loss of her son, Courtney, but
Speaker 1: her grieving process was complicated by the fact there were
Speaker 1: so many unanswered questions surrounding his death. I wanted to
Speaker 1: hear about her cycle logical journey through all this, how
Speaker 1: she balanced her dual identities as mom an investigator, and importantly,
Speaker 1: I wanted to know how all of her advocacy may
Speaker 1: have changed her relationship with Courtney's death. I started off
Speaker 1: our conversation by asking Chaparral about the kind of person
Speaker 1: Courtney was. He was such a loving person. I shall
Speaker 1: always come home, like from dropping off the kids at school,
Speaker 1: and he'll be here, and he'll come up and he'll
Speaker 1: be all in my bed. And I remember even in
Speaker 1: his teen and when he was even grown, he'd be like,
Speaker 1: can you just rub on my ears? You know? He
Speaker 1: was just like so affectionate. And I would say, one
Speaker 1: of the best memories I have for Courtney is him
Speaker 1: being the glue. He was someone who if there was
Speaker 1: a conflict or he would be the first person to
Speaker 1: try to resolve it. Hey, you guys, you know we're family.
Speaker 1: Let's pull it together. It doesn't matter what happened. Let's
Speaker 1: just resolve this and move on. I remember Courtney shortly
Speaker 1: after my grandmother passed away, and Courtney and my grandmother
Speaker 1: were very close, and he said, Mom, grandma wanted me
Speaker 1: to keep the family together. And Courtney may have been
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty at the time that she passed. And I
Speaker 1: was like, you know, that's a huge responsibility, Courtney, I said,
Speaker 1: but she saw something within you that felt that you
Speaker 1: could do it. Because Courtney was the type of person,
Speaker 1: he got along with everyone, and so he would basically
Speaker 1: try to host family dinners lesson like this person, because
Speaker 1: these are the things that my grandmother did, especially around
Speaker 1: holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. She made sure everyone got together.
Speaker 1: In addition to being a family oriented guy, Courtney was
Speaker 1: also making great strides in his professional life. He was
Speaker 1: a sales rap and he earned a special bonus that
Speaker 1: allowed him to get at Burgundy BMW and so I
Speaker 1: remember him pulling up in our driveway, probably around twelve
Speaker 1: or one in the morning. He was like, Mom, I
Speaker 1: did it. I did it. I got the car. I
Speaker 1: got the car. And I remember him give me the
Speaker 1: biggest hug and he was like, you gotta come down
Speaker 1: there and see it. And the music was blasting and
Speaker 1: he was just like so excited. His friends were out.
Speaker 1: I mean it's like literally twelve thirty one o'clock in
Speaker 1: the morning and he had called out his friends over
Speaker 1: you can't see anything, and everybody was just it was
Speaker 1: like a mini party right in the driveway. And this
Speaker 1: car wasn't just any car to Courtney. They had a relationship.
Speaker 1: He would talk to the car every morning like it
Speaker 1: was his girlfriend, Good morning, baby, how are you today?
Speaker 1: I mean, it was just that was his life. The
Speaker 1: car was his life for sure. Wow. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess it symbolized something so meaningful to him about what
Speaker 1: he had accomplished in life and where he was heading.
Speaker 1: And it did. His goals were always to make sure
Speaker 1: that we didn't have to work or his sisters didn't
Speaker 1: have to do anything. So once he received that BMW bonus,
Speaker 1: he actually pushed harder and he was working harder, talking
Speaker 1: to more people and trying to get as much as
Speaker 1: he could in the way of excelling his business as possible.
Speaker 1: So one night, you hear a knock on the door
Speaker 1: at two in the morning, and it's the police. Can
Speaker 1: you take me back to that moment. Yes, I remember
Speaker 1: that night like it was yesterday. I could still hear
Speaker 1: the thunderous beat in my head. You know, this is
Speaker 1: something that you never forget, these sounds, these moments where
Speaker 1: you were. And I remember being so startled out of
Speaker 1: my sleep because I've never experienced such a bamming at
Speaker 1: my door. So that bamming it shocked me and I
Speaker 1: knew that something bad had happened. And so when I
Speaker 1: got to the door, the officer was like, do you
Speaker 1: know a Courtney Copeland And I said yes, I'm his mother,
Speaker 1: and then he said, well, we come to notify you
Speaker 1: that you need to call Illinois massign A Hospital. And
Speaker 1: at that moment, the first thing that goes through my
Speaker 1: mind is, oh, my god, my son has been in
Speaker 1: a terrible accident. Something that's happened. And so I'm like,
Speaker 1: for a police officer to come to your home, it
Speaker 1: has to be extremely serious. So I remember my husband
Speaker 1: he had jumped out of bed as well. And by
Speaker 1: this time I'm focusing on Okay, I have to go
Speaker 1: change my clothes and get ready because they're telling us
Speaker 1: that we have to go to this hospital and so
Speaker 1: my husband is talking to them and I was like, well,
Speaker 1: Brent called the hospital, let's see what's happening. And I'm
Speaker 1: putting all my clothes and they said, we can't tell
Speaker 1: you over the phone. You need to come in. Once
Speaker 1: that happened, once he uttered those words, I remember being
Speaker 1: in my bedroom and just falling to the floor because
Speaker 1: I just felt in my gut that them telling you
Speaker 1: that they can't tell you on the phone, this must
Speaker 1: be bad. And then once I arrived to the hospital,
Speaker 1: I told him who I was. I said, I'm here
Speaker 1: to see Courtney Copeland. And then they said, well, we
Speaker 1: need to take you to the family room. And I remember,
Speaker 1: just like it just happened just now. When they said that,
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm not going. I'm not going into
Speaker 1: the family room because in that moment, you know that
Speaker 1: your child is gone. And so I said at that point,
Speaker 1: I started to demand to see Courtney, and they were like,
Speaker 1: we can't allow you to see him, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, it was an emotional, emotional moment because everyone
Speaker 1: knew at that moment that Courtney was gone. But you know,
Speaker 1: as a mom, you want to see that confirmation. You
Speaker 1: want to you want to see your child, and they
Speaker 1: were at first denying us the right to see Courtney,
Speaker 1: and they were denying us the right to even really
Speaker 1: know a lot of information about him. What was the
Speaker 1: reason they wouldn't let you see Courtney, Well, because it
Speaker 1: was a murder investigation. And so they said that the
Speaker 1: police had already determined that this was a murder and
Speaker 1: that no one is to be able to see him.
Speaker 1: And so they said their protocol is to send them
Speaker 1: directly to the morgue. And so about forty five minutes
Speaker 1: to an hour, the doctor finally comes and tells us
Speaker 1: what happened. And so we're in the family room and
Speaker 1: at this time it's about thirty family members that are
Speaker 1: with us, and his friends, his closest friends, and they
Speaker 1: were like, you know, the doctor came and said, your
Speaker 1: son was brought in by ambulance and he was shot,
Speaker 1: and all of us just like shot by who? And
Speaker 1: we all fell to the ground because we couldn't believe.
Speaker 1: I mean, because for Courtney to be shot, it was
Speaker 1: just something that was unfathomable about him, of all people
Speaker 1: being shot. He was not you know, violent, he you know,
Speaker 1: if he saw confrontation Courtney would leave, so for them
Speaker 1: to tell us that he had been shot, we immediately said,
Speaker 1: by who who did this to him? After nearly two
Speaker 1: hours of pleading with hospital doctors and staff, Chapel was
Speaker 1: finally allowed to see her son. She and her family
Speaker 1: made their way to the trauma ward, where Courtney was
Speaker 1: lying on a hospital bed. I would probably say that
Speaker 1: was probably the hardest moment of my life to be
Speaker 1: able to see him in that state. You know, I
Speaker 1: remember so vividly when we first walked in the room,
Speaker 1: and you know, all of my family was there, and
Speaker 1: I can remember myself just telling everybody, I need to
Speaker 1: be along with my baby. I need a moment. I
Speaker 1: need him to know that you know, Mommy was sorry
Speaker 1: that she wasn't there. You know. I just imagine my
Speaker 1: son going through all this trauma by himself and not
Speaker 1: having his mom there, and that was hard for me.
Speaker 1: And I remember touching him and kissing him and his
Speaker 1: body was still warm, and you know, you know those
Speaker 1: moments you just think about all of the time that
Speaker 1: you had and they're rushing back every moment from birth
Speaker 1: and him into this moment where you're looking at him
Speaker 1: for his final days, his final seconds, his final hours,
Speaker 1: and there's that very final moment when you're getting ready
Speaker 1: to say goodbye. There's a moment at the hospital that
Speaker 1: night where when you feel more than just grief. Yes. Yes.
Speaker 1: After we view Courtney, the two detectives that allow us
Speaker 1: to see him, they begin to question us about Courtney
Speaker 1: in the vehicle. The first question they asked was who
Speaker 1: was the owner of the BMW, And I said, Courtney.
Speaker 1: Courtney is owner of the BMW. And I said, but
Speaker 1: he did have a co signer. So on my mind,
Speaker 1: I was thinking maybe this was a traffic stop gone wrong,
Speaker 1: because why would you be questioning you know, I'm thinking detectives.
Speaker 1: If they're telling me that my son was shot and
Speaker 1: killed by an unknown assailant, then the first thing should
Speaker 1: have been you know, where was he going, who was
Speaker 1: he with? What information do you know? But to question
Speaker 1: the vehicle it made me suspicious of their intent. Maybe
Speaker 1: they thought that Coordiney had stolen the vehicle. It was
Speaker 1: like to me they were interrogating Coordiney as opposed to
Speaker 1: trying to find out who could have done this to him.
Speaker 1: So at this point, Chaperl, you decide to take matters
Speaker 1: into your own hands, and you go in a full
Speaker 1: investigator mode. I'm trying to put myself in your shoes,
Speaker 1: and it's hard to imagine where I'd even begin. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, it wasn't by choice that I took this
Speaker 1: journey and investigating my son's murder. I had no other option.
Speaker 1: I felt that Courtney deserved to have closure. I mean
Speaker 1: it was like day in and day out from the
Speaker 1: moment I found out that Courtney had been killed. I
Speaker 1: needed to know why. I still need to know why,
Speaker 1: and I needed to know how, how did these things occur,
Speaker 1: what happened, and so you know, within my being, it
Speaker 1: was just constantly turning all of these unknowns and I
Speaker 1: had to try to uncover whatever I could. I mean literally,
Speaker 1: we were working. We were working on Courtney's case twenty
Speaker 1: four to seven. I don't think I slept the first
Speaker 1: week because I would maybe sleep like two to three
Speaker 1: hours because I was constantly going over the timeline. I
Speaker 1: was recording what my thoughts were, any tips, I was
Speaker 1: putting it in there. We were going out in the neighborhood,
Speaker 1: we were walking looking for clues. We were talking to
Speaker 1: his friends that he would have encountered that night. So
Speaker 1: we were literally we had all boots on the streets
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what happened. You eventually tracked down
Speaker 1: Courtney's hospital records. What did the record say? You know,
Speaker 1: at the time that I actually received the medical records,
Speaker 1: I had already had suspicions that something was wrong. So
Speaker 1: the first page of the medical documents was the Chicago
Speaker 1: Fire Department runs sheet, and that particular run sheet, the
Speaker 1: first paragraph of it it states that my son was violent, agitated, combative,
Speaker 1: and a threat to others. And so I knew in
Speaker 1: my heart, because I know my son, that this information
Speaker 1: had to be wrong. As I continue to read, it
Speaker 1: says and the patient was handcuffed. When I saw that
Speaker 1: my son was handcuffed, I lost it. I mean I
Speaker 1: was just like, why would you handcuffed somebody who was
Speaker 1: dying and he went to you for help? And so
Speaker 1: none of this made any sense to me, and it
Speaker 1: only hyped my suspicion. You know, you felt a little
Speaker 1: comfort in knowing that at least he was well cared
Speaker 1: for on the scene, but when you find out that
Speaker 1: that was not true, it just crushed me. Throughout your investigation,
Speaker 1: you and members of the community are sharing leads with
Speaker 1: the police, but they seemed to be falling on deaf ears.
Speaker 1: In fact, the police department goes totally silent on you
Speaker 1: for an entire year. What tactics do you use to
Speaker 1: try to keep their attention on Courtney's case. Well, we
Speaker 1: actually did rallies outside of the twenty fifth district. We
Speaker 1: marched on the mirror office, and we also canvased the neighborhoods.
Speaker 1: We talked to neighbors who hit video cameras. We requested
Speaker 1: for your information Freedom of Information Act so that that
Speaker 1: way we can get all the tapes, the audio, the visual,
Speaker 1: the pod cameras, everything that surrounded this case. Chaparral was
Speaker 1: intent on getting access to the footage surrounding Courtney's death
Speaker 1: and began searching the web for potential partners who could
Speaker 1: help her. One night, around two thirty in the morning,
Speaker 1: she came across an article about Lakwan McDonald, the seventeen
Speaker 1: year old who was fatally shot by a Chicago police
Speaker 1: officer in twenty fourteen. The article cited a nonprofit called
Speaker 1: The Invisible Institute. The institute had played a key role
Speaker 1: in getting footage release from LaQuan McDonald's case. And so
Speaker 1: I said, well, at this point, I have nothing to lose.
Speaker 1: I'm going to write to the Invisible Institute to see
Speaker 1: if I can get some help with trying to get
Speaker 1: the videotapes and the audio tapes that we know that
Speaker 1: the police have surrounding Courtney's case, because at that point,
Speaker 1: I was only looking for someone to listen to me
Speaker 1: and to hear me, because I felt like everything I
Speaker 1: was saying as a mom, it was being misconstrued as
Speaker 1: I'm just a grieving mom and none of this have
Speaker 1: any merit. But what I was showing to the world,
Speaker 1: what I wanted the world to understand, that there are
Speaker 1: a lot of inconsistencies in this case. Yeah, it's so
Speaker 1: interesting how when you occupy the role of mom, there's
Speaker 1: a presumption that emotions bias, all that stuff is creeping in,
Speaker 1: when in actuality, you were holding yourself to a very
Speaker 1: rigorous process and you were just trying to find the facts. Yes,
Speaker 1: very early on, my friend Santita, she told me, you
Speaker 1: don't want to come to a conclusion. You want to
Speaker 1: arrive the conclusion. You want to let the evidence lead
Speaker 1: you to what happened to your son. And so that
Speaker 1: was one of the crucial advices that I received and
Speaker 1: that I tried to adapt during the whole process, that
Speaker 1: I wanted to naturally allow the evidence to tell us
Speaker 1: what happened to Courtney. I'm wondering whether strategies you use
Speaker 1: to try and gain more credibility in the eyes of
Speaker 1: the police force given your status as quote mom. You know,
Speaker 1: I think that they were dismissive because I was a mom,
Speaker 1: They would dismissive because I was black, all of these things,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if they would treat everyone like that,
Speaker 1: but I felt that they treated me very badly. But
Speaker 1: I believe that they felt that because I'm not I
Speaker 1: didn't go to law school. I didn't go to the
Speaker 1: police academy that they're for. That my only knowledge about
Speaker 1: solving crimes is Special Victims Unit on Law and Order.
Speaker 1: That's what That's what they basically thought that I was doing.
Speaker 1: And just like I told them, I said, no, this
Speaker 1: is basic information. I mean, you know, I had to
Speaker 1: actually read a lot of terminology. I had to understand
Speaker 1: everything that I was reading in their report. Some things
Speaker 1: I didn't understand and I had to go and look
Speaker 1: it up. Well, what does this mean? When they say,
Speaker 1: this is what does these code me in police language.
Speaker 1: So in order for me to understand that, I had
Speaker 1: to actually reach out to a couple of police offers
Speaker 1: of friends that I know, had to reach out to
Speaker 1: some share off people that I know, and to try
Speaker 1: to figure out the terminology so I can understand on
Speaker 1: their level. Same with the autopsic report. It's a lot
Speaker 1: of medical terminology I didn't know, so as a mom,
Speaker 1: I had to take off my mom emotional world and
Speaker 1: put on my investigative mode hat and try to figure
Speaker 1: out what happened to my son. So I wanted to
Speaker 1: know all the ins and outs, how the bullet travel everything,
Speaker 1: And people were like, this is just too much. It's
Speaker 1: too much, You're doing too much, and I will tell
Speaker 1: them no, I need to know. I need to know
Speaker 1: how did my son pass away. I need to know.
Speaker 1: Together with the Invisible Institute, Chaparral continued to advocate for
Speaker 1: the release of footage from Courtney's final moments, and finally
Speaker 1: the police agree to turn it over. One and a
Speaker 1: half years after Courtney's death, I asked chaparl what it
Speaker 1: was like to hold those videos in her hands for
Speaker 1: the first time. You know, I remember receiving the videos
Speaker 1: in my mailbox, and I had prepared myself all right,
Speaker 1: came up in my room, set up the DVD player,
Speaker 1: got prepared to watch it. I prayed before I loaded
Speaker 1: it because I knew it was going to be hard
Speaker 1: to actually see it. I pop it in and it
Speaker 1: tells me it's in a format that I can't even read.
Speaker 1: So I remember feeling this horrible, horrible feeling like they're
Speaker 1: playing with me, They're playing with my emotions. They knew
Speaker 1: that they sent me a format that I couldn't read,
Speaker 1: so I remember just crying out, and I called the
Speaker 1: Invisible Institute to ask them if they can decode it.
Speaker 1: So the moment that we get the videotape decoded, I
Speaker 1: remember the Invisible Institute being with me, and all I
Speaker 1: could see is my son just like reaching up on
Speaker 1: his knees, begging them to help, begging. He surrounded by
Speaker 1: eight to ten cops. My son is begging to be helped,
Speaker 1: and then the video cuts away and focuses on the
Speaker 1: police station for two minutes, and so I'm like, what
Speaker 1: is happening to my son? I'm panicking because I don't
Speaker 1: even know what's happening. At this point, why would the
Speaker 1: video just automatically turn away from the scene into we're
Speaker 1: watching the police station. And then the next frame is
Speaker 1: when they aggressively picked up my son off the ground,
Speaker 1: throw him against the police car, and then onto the
Speaker 1: gurney as if he was a ragged out And that's
Speaker 1: why I often tell people, it's so hard, it's so
Speaker 1: hard to even imagine the emotions that my son. I
Speaker 1: just know my son was just so confused, like police
Speaker 1: are supposed to be here to serve and protect you,
Speaker 1: and I'm shocked, I'm scared what's happening. And this is
Speaker 1: what his final moments worked, and he was by himself.
Speaker 1: And I tell people all the time that's like the
Speaker 1: hardest thing for me as a mom to know that
Speaker 1: he endured all this by himself, and there was nobody
Speaker 1: there who cared enough for him to help him through
Speaker 1: this and to comfort him in these moments. Not a
Speaker 1: soul was there. We'll be back in a moment with
Speaker 1: a slight change of plans. Over the next several years,
Speaker 1: Chaparral Wells continued to push for further clarity around what
Speaker 1: actually happened to her son Courtney Copeland. In September of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, she received some news from the City of Chicago.
Speaker 1: Chaparral's advocacy had paid off. The Office of the Inspector General,
Speaker 1: an independent watchdog agency, had decided to launch a formal
Speaker 1: investigation into Courtney's case. The investigation is currently under way.
Speaker 1: Where do you go from here, Chaparral? A lot of
Speaker 1: people say, you know, don't put too much stock in
Speaker 1: what this report shows, But I think that what happened
Speaker 1: to Courtney has to be addressed on all levels of
Speaker 1: city government, state government, federal government, because I feel that
Speaker 1: the incidents occur far more frequently than police shootings, but
Speaker 1: they don't get the highlight and the notoriety because it's
Speaker 1: not the police pulling the trigger or a beat down
Speaker 1: or a knee on a neck. But these type of
Speaker 1: incidents of racial profiling and the police accountability need to
Speaker 1: be addressed. So I'm looking for more legislative changes to
Speaker 1: see if the Inspector General kild make policy changes that
Speaker 1: would change the policy from they can intervene until they
Speaker 1: must intervene to help to save more lives. Because the
Speaker 1: reality is is that, like I said, it wasn't the
Speaker 1: fact that Courtney was shot. It was the lack of
Speaker 1: urgency to his care. You know, recently, Offers a French
Speaker 1: was shot Chicago and she was killed. I listened to
Speaker 1: that traffic on the police scanner that day, and I
Speaker 1: was listening in real time. I saw how they move
Speaker 1: heaven and earth to get her to the nearest trauma
Speaker 1: center as they should. As they should, But that same
Speaker 1: care that they put for offers of French should go
Speaker 1: for every citizen in Chicago in the United States. There
Speaker 1: should be no respect of person because of their title.
Speaker 1: But everybody deserves a fighting chance, and so if we
Speaker 1: make these legislative changes to ensure that everyone has the
Speaker 1: opportunity at life, then that would be justice for Courtney.
Speaker 1: Did you ever find your relationship at the police changing
Speaker 1: throughout this process, I mean, how you approach that change
Speaker 1: in any way? Well, I would say we still have
Speaker 1: a contentious relationship. I would say that I still have
Speaker 1: no faith in them that they would actually solve Courtney's murder.
Speaker 1: But I'm hoping that we can come to a clear
Speaker 1: understanding that Courtney deserves justice. This was not for me
Speaker 1: an investigation on the police to try to entrap them
Speaker 1: or to make them look like the bad guy. I
Speaker 1: wanted justice for my son. It didn't matter if it
Speaker 1: was the police, if it was a stranger. Whoever did
Speaker 1: this to Courtney, they deserved to be prosecuted and convicted
Speaker 1: of this crime. So that was my only goal, and
Speaker 1: I was always telling them, I want you to treat
Speaker 1: my son as if it was yours. How would you
Speaker 1: go about handling this investigation if it was your child
Speaker 1: on that slab instead of mine. I'm curious to know
Speaker 1: how having clarity around Courtney's death will impact your life
Speaker 1: on a personal level. Aside from the advocacy part. I
Speaker 1: know there's nothing I could do. I know as a mother,
Speaker 1: I cannot change what happened. I don't even know if
Speaker 1: me being there would have been any different. But for me,
Speaker 1: the clarity I have is more introspective about life and
Speaker 1: how fragile it is, and how that you live every
Speaker 1: moment as if it's your last, and you love harder
Speaker 1: and you love more freely. So that's the clarity I've
Speaker 1: learned in all of this, is to make sure you
Speaker 1: tell everyone that you love them. Because I didn't know
Speaker 1: that I wasn't going to be able to tell my
Speaker 1: son that and now I only can tell him and
Speaker 1: my actions and my continuous fight for him, But I
Speaker 1: wish I had that moment to say that for him
Speaker 1: to hear it. Do you think this reflects a change
Speaker 1: and how you how you've thought about your goals throughout,
Speaker 1: which is at the beginning you were seeking clarity around
Speaker 1: the facts, and actually now it's it's also its clarity
Speaker 1: around how you plan to live the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: Like that's what you ended up getting from it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's this poem that I often quote. The
Speaker 1: hardest thing was hearing that my son had passed away,
Speaker 1: But now it's the hardest thing is going on and
Speaker 1: living without him. Now that I've heard that, and that
Speaker 1: is that is the truth? How do you? How do
Speaker 1: you continue to move forward and go on? And I
Speaker 1: hope that what the world gathers from Courtney is just
Speaker 1: to love, Just to love, to show the love and
Speaker 1: not be afraid to show how you feel about someone.
Speaker 1: One of the greatest things about Courtney that I learned
Speaker 1: and his death is that he had this keen ability
Speaker 1: to make everyone feel special, to make everyone feel loved.
Speaker 1: And if you ask any of his friends, they'll say
Speaker 1: Courtney was my best friend. Usually we only get one,
Speaker 1: but he made everyone feel like they were his best friend,
Speaker 1: and so I'm learning from him those qualities of making
Speaker 1: myself vulnerable and to show love more often has telling
Speaker 1: Courtney's story, including the story of how well he lived
Speaker 1: his life, helped you heal in ways that you couldn't
Speaker 1: have anticipated. I would say, yes, Um, as a parent,
Speaker 1: you grow up teaching your children the morals guidance. You
Speaker 1: know you're still you're instilling so much into them, and
Speaker 1: you're like, I want, I hope these kids are listening
Speaker 1: to me. And what what what I found out in
Speaker 1: his death is that he was the way I raised
Speaker 1: him is the way that he was living. And so
Speaker 1: I find so much comfort and so much joy and
Speaker 1: hearing other people talk about my son the way that
Speaker 1: he made them feel. I recall the weekend that Courtney
Speaker 1: had passed away. I opened my home to the public
Speaker 1: because it was just so much outpouring of grief, and
Speaker 1: they were grieving with me, grieving for me, and we
Speaker 1: were all united in this great loss of Ortney Copeland.
Speaker 1: And I had opened my house to anyone who wanted
Speaker 1: to come and pay their respects, and I remember a
Speaker 1: gentleman walking into my home and he told me, he said,
Speaker 1: you don't know me, and I don't even know your son,
Speaker 1: but I saw his photo on the TV that he
Speaker 1: had been killed. And he handed me this koran. And
Speaker 1: he hands me this koran. He said, ma'am, your son
Speaker 1: came into my restaurant about a month ago and he
Speaker 1: saw me. He was sitting with his girlfriend. He saw me.
Speaker 1: He said, I was in so much pain that day,
Speaker 1: and he said, your son saw the anguish in my face.
Speaker 1: And he walked over to me and he said, Sir,
Speaker 1: I don't know you, but I just want to encourage
Speaker 1: you today. I want to give you some hope and
Speaker 1: tell you that whatever it is that you're going through,
Speaker 1: that God is going to be able to help you.
Speaker 1: He started crying, and he said, because your son came
Speaker 1: to me in that day and he gave me those
Speaker 1: words of encouragement and told me to keep going and
Speaker 1: whatever I was going through it was going to be okay.
Speaker 1: I'm here today, and he turned around he walked out,
Speaker 1: and I just like, oh my God, and you have
Speaker 1: so much You have so much joy and sadness at
Speaker 1: the same time. But you as a parent, you said,
Speaker 1: my child has feel listening in there, and they're validating
Speaker 1: you as a parent, and so I thought that was
Speaker 1: just like so profound that we wanted him to grow
Speaker 1: up and treat people with dignity and respect, and that's
Speaker 1: the way I would want him to have been treated
Speaker 1: as well. There's an update to Chaparral's story that I
Speaker 1: wanted to share with you. When she and I initially spoke,
Speaker 1: the Inspector General's investigation was still under way, but Chaparral
Speaker 1: was recently notified that the investigation has wrapped up and
Speaker 1: a final report has been sent to the City of Chicago.
Speaker 1: The report is slated to be released to the public
Speaker 1: in the coming months. For more details on the evolution
Speaker 1: of Courtney's case, you can listen to the podcast Somebody,
Speaker 1: which was named a finalist for a Pulled Surprise this
Speaker 1: past year. Hey, thanks so much for listening to A
Speaker 1: Slight Change of Plans this year and for sharing the
Speaker 1: show with others. We're hard at work on a new
Speaker 1: batch of episodes, but in the meantime, you can check
Speaker 1: out the feed for episodes you may not heard yet.
Speaker 1: From the whole Slight Change family. We're wishing you a
Speaker 1: peaceful and RESTful holiday. We'll see you in the new year.
Speaker 1: A Slight Change of Plans is created, written an executive
Speaker 1: produce by me Maya Shunker. The Slight Change family includes
Speaker 1: Tyler Greene our senior producer, Jen Guerra our senior editor,
Speaker 1: Ben Taliday, our sound engineer, Emily Rosteck our associate producer,
Speaker 1: and Neil Lavelle our executive producer. Louis Skara wrote our
Speaker 1: theme song in Ginger Smith helped to arrange the vocals.
Speaker 1: A Slight Change of Plants the production of Pushkin Industries
Speaker 1: so big thanks to everyone there, including Malcolm Bladwell, Jacob Weisberg,
Speaker 1: Lee tal Malat, and Heather Fame and of course a
Speaker 1: very special thanks to Jimmy Lee. You can follow A
Speaker 1: Slight Change of Plans on Instagram at doctor Maya Schunker.
Speaker 1: Can you just quickly share the story of finding out
Speaker 1: what Courtney name you on his phone? You know, we're
Speaker 1: going through his phone and we're looking at all the
Speaker 1: messages and it says, oh, whose number is this? And
Speaker 1: the blow and behold it's my number. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, as anywether as He's like here she go again.
Speaker 1: Oh but he would also call me Mama Bear. He
Speaker 1: would like Mama Bear, Mama Bear. And I think that
Speaker 1: that that is just it, and Mama Bear is fighting
Speaker 1: for him. And he knew that whatever situation, whether it
Speaker 1: was oh oh, Mama Bear, I was going to be
Speaker 1: somebody that's going to be determined to find out what
Speaker 1: happened to him.