0:00

What you're about to hear in the following episode

0:02

does not implicate the Chicago police

0:04

in the murder of Courtney. Copeland previously

0:08

on somebody, and

0:11

so when they said that

0:13

he was combative, we were shocked

0:15

with that information. We never got their report

0:18

about him that he was combative. I know

0:20

how he is, and I know he

0:22

didn't do anything to pose a threat. I

0:25

remember him specifically being handcuffed

0:27

to the bed, and so we

0:29

were like, Okay, where's the police,

0:32

we need these handcuffs all. My

0:34

name is Chaparral Wells. This

0:36

is the story of my son, Courtney,

0:39

a young black man in a fancy car

0:41

who wound up with a bullet in his back

0:44

in front of a Chicago police station. It's

0:47

the story of my search for

0:49

the truth. This

0:52

is somebody. Everybody,

0:55

these guys every

0:57

day, no

1:01

bide He's not no.

1:05

That's right. March

1:17

four, one hour,

1:19

sixteen minutes and fifty three

1:22

seconds. This

1:30

is the last time you hear Courtney alive,

1:33

just moments after he's been shot.

1:37

It's difficult to understand, but

1:40

I hear my baby saying I've

1:42

been shot. I've been shot.

1:45

Chary. I

1:50

felt as a mom, like my

1:53

baby he's hurt and

1:55

I can't be there. When

2:02

police gave me Courtney's phone back, I

2:04

went straight to his recent calls and

2:07

there it was. But

2:11

it took a whole year between me

2:13

learning that this call existed and

2:16

hearing it for myself. Did

2:18

my son down? What

2:21

do you mean as you did

2:24

Courtney Copeland down? Now? What do

2:26

you think? Absolutely so?

2:29

Why weren't you Why didn't you inform me the first

2:31

time we met. That was a recording

2:34

of my conversation with police. They

2:36

never told me that they had nine

2:38

on one call on Courtney. I

2:40

wanted to hear the last moments of my son's

2:43

life. I felt like as a mom,

2:45

I deserved that It

2:50

had been over a year since they

2:52

had contacted me about my son's

2:54

style. I felt like my son

2:57

had become a statistic, like he

2:59

was basicly put on the shelf.

3:01

The day after he died, and

3:04

I was in a battle with the city to get

3:06

them to release any in all videos

3:08

that they had. I wanted

3:10

somebody, anybody

3:13

to hear me. Okay,

3:16

Facebook, I'm gonna try this again, Like I was

3:18

saying, you know, we

3:20

are the average black

3:23

family trying to fight against

3:25

a huge city and

3:29

everywhere we turned, We're

3:31

here the doors

3:34

getting slammed in our face. And

3:37

I was like, God just helped me to

3:39

get to where I need to be. I

3:43

was reading through articles and

3:46

I just happened to come across

3:49

article about Lakwan. Lakwan

3:52

McDonald was the biggest cover up that's the Chicago

3:54

Police Department ever had in its existence,

3:57

far as far as I'm concerned. Lakwan

3:59

got shot sixteen times front and back,

4:02

and he was running away from police. He

4:04

was seventeen years old, a

4:15

sixteen shots in a cover up. The

4:18

police, the city try

4:21

to hide what happened to Lakwan until

4:24

a judge forced them to release

4:26

that video. Now, the dash camp video shows

4:28

Van Dyke shooting and killing seventeen

4:31

year old Lakwan McDonald in two thousand

4:33

fourteen. In the black

4:35

community. None of us were surprised

4:37

to see this, but the Lakwa

4:40

McDonald case got the whole country

4:42

talking about race and the police

4:46

for months. The only explanation offered

4:49

for while Lakwan McDonald died on that street

4:51

was that an officer had fired at him in

4:53

self defense. That's Rachel Maddow and the

4:55

Kwon McDonald had been shot in the chest.

4:59

That was the public story about this case. The

5:01

only thing that interrupted that public

5:04

trajectory is that some very aggressive journalism

5:06

happened in Chicago. I heard about this reporter

5:09

who blew open the case of Lakwa

5:11

McDonald. Mr Calvin, thank you very

5:13

much for your time to that. I appreciate you being here. It's

5:15

good to be with you. Um you've

5:17

been chasing the information on this case for

5:19

so long. I decided I would reach out to that

5:22

reporter, Jamie Calvin,

5:24

so I sent an email. I didn't

5:26

even know if anyone would actually read my note,

5:29

but before I knew it, I had someone

5:31

from his organization on the phone. So

5:34

thank you for writing to us. No, I've

5:37

you know, been following or what you did with

5:39

La Kwan and uh,

5:41

just trying to get someone

5:43

to listen to me because I'm like, it's just it

5:46

just doesn't add up. A few days

5:48

later, I was sitting down with Jamie.

5:51

I brought all my papers with me, my

5:54

fouls, I mean, I had everything.

5:56

I have such strong impressions of that day,

5:59

so I remember you're coming and

6:02

it's coming, and sitting right here at this table. Your

6:05

ability to find in that stack

6:07

of paper without file

6:09

folders with tabs naming to find

6:12

whatever document you wanted to illustrate

6:14

a points you were making, which I

6:16

think I still think of as a kind of card shark,

6:19

you know, virtuosity. But

6:21

when I walked him through the case, I didn't

6:24

know at the end of the conversation how it would

6:26

go, what he would say, but I

6:28

felt that he was listening to me. I've

6:30

had a lot of these conversations in the course of my

6:33

career, none quite like this, because

6:35

you've laid out the

6:38

uh sequence of events as you understood

6:40

it, and identified the inconsistencies

6:43

and anomalies and just suspect

6:46

things and the police account. Jamie

6:49

said that his journalism team will take

6:51

the case. They call themselves

6:54

the Invisible Institute.

6:59

When I first went there, I

7:01

was like, this really is invisible because

7:04

the way it's set back into

7:06

a very secluded area, you'll

7:08

never know it exists,

7:11

like a little detective agency type

7:13

of feeling. He actually

7:15

referred me to his partner, Alison Flowers.

7:18

Good to see you. How are you? Allison is

7:20

a journalist at the Invisible Institute.

7:23

I saw your busy this weekend moving your daughter

7:25

into college. Right first, I

7:27

just wanted to check in and

7:29

see how your mother's day was. She's

7:32

so sweet, but she's a hardball. She will get

7:34

the answers for you. How long were you

7:36

there? Were there for? And Allison,

7:38

you're sitting next to me right now. Let's

7:41

see, we've known each other now for almost

7:43

three years. It's been a long road and

7:45

we've been in touch almost every single day. Yes,

7:48

okay, Alison, I'm back. Okay,

7:50

Hey, Chap, I'm here with Jamie and Bill by

7:52

the way, Bills with the Invisible Institute

7:55

too. So

7:59

person, how are you feeling after

8:01

the revelations. I remember when I

8:03

first met you. I think we were downstairs

8:05

in the coffee shop, and you were like

8:08

very meticulous. You were taking notes, you

8:10

hit your list of questions, you

8:12

hit Okay, hey, we're gonna hit this, We're

8:15

gonna do this, We're gonna do that. At

8:17

this point, I was like, hey, I love

8:19

her, you know. I remember you

8:22

being very

8:24

measured, but I could also

8:26

tell that you were in a lot of pain, but it was almost

8:29

sort of secondary to your drive. When

8:32

I first met you, you told me what you believe

8:34

happened to Courtney, that he died after

8:36

an encounter with police, and that this seemed

8:38

like a traffic stop gone wrong, and

8:40

you had all this information that you've compiled, the

8:43

handcuffing, the fact that there was no

8:45

blood in the car, and the fact that they weren't

8:47

releasing the videos to you, and

8:49

so you thought maybe Courtney

8:52

was shot somewhere else. There were just a lot

8:54

of unanswered questions at that time. So

8:56

from here on out, Alison is going to join

8:58

me in this investigation. So

9:01

one of the first things we did was pull records

9:03

for the police officers who were outside the station

9:06

with Courtney. There are a lot of

9:08

officers on the scene, but there were two

9:10

main players, Officer Andrew

9:12

Block and Sergeant Sean Ronan.

9:16

When Courtney pulled up to the station, Officer

9:18

Block was the first person he saw. Block

9:21

said Courtney got out of his car and rushed

9:24

over to him. He told him, I've

9:26

been shot, and then he collapsed

9:29

to playing down a granted centeral of donim

9:31

and just said he was shot. Okay,

9:33

look at the ms okay

9:39

right away. Block called an ambulance

9:41

immediately, which is protocol. And

9:44

when we dug into his history, we

9:46

didn't see much. He's now a lieutenant,

9:49

but then they're Sergeant Sean

9:51

Ronan. Guys, as soon as you can

9:53

try and pinpoint the location, we've got

9:56

Rogan Glass at Felban and Long. It might

9:58

have happened over here, so we're just trying figure it out.

10:01

Ronan was the one running the show, and

10:04

when we checked out his history on the force, we

10:06

found some alarming stuff and he got a whole

10:08

bunch of complaints against him,

10:10

thirty complaints that we've identified,

10:13

more complaints than eighty nine of

10:16

other Chicago police officers. Ronan's

10:19

been disciplined twice, and

10:21

that's pretty unusual, given that most of the

10:23

time in Chicago, complaints are

10:25

dismissed in favor of police

10:27

officers. They are descriptions

10:29

of him calling a black man a nigga, a

10:32

motherfucker, and a stupid ass

10:34

gang bank and Ronan's been accused of

10:36

false arrest, planting evidence,

10:38

slamming a man's face into the concrete,

10:41

and in one case, he and some other officers

10:43

were accused of throwing a man out of window, tazing

10:46

and beating him, and then refusing

10:48

him medical care. That case

10:51

was settled, Ronan stayed on the force,

10:53

and then there's this from

10:57

the year after Courtney died.

11:09

It's a video of Ronan shooting at

11:11

a man during a traffic stop. Six

11:14

times. Police put in reports

11:16

that the man pointed a gun at them. He

11:18

survived, Oh my god. And

11:20

Ronan was involved in another shooting, but

11:23

for that one he was given one of Chicago

11:25

Police's top awards, the

11:27

Superintendent's Medal of Valor. I

11:30

should note that most officers never fired

11:32

their guns over their whole careers. So

11:35

the fact that Ronan has done this at least twice,

11:38

that's a big deal. When

11:42

I was investigating Courtney's murder on my

11:44

own, the city of Chicago

11:47

didn't pay me any mind. But

11:49

when the Invisible Institute came aboard, they

11:51

changed their tune. The

11:55

Invisible Institute sent in a ton of

11:57

record requests, not just for

11:59

the records of the officers on the scene, but

12:02

for police videos and the recordings

12:04

from the scanner. And this got

12:06

the attention of the detectives. Finally,

12:10

did he say why he was calling?

12:12

Just out of the blue after Fritilla.

12:15

Here I am on the phone with one of them Visible

12:17

Institute reporters, Sam. He

12:20

said, I noticed, you guys have this valid

12:22

forward your question. I said, it's you're right

12:24

to know. I told Sam

12:26

that the detective asked me to come down to the station.

12:30

Are you gonna go? I'm trying

12:32

to figure out if I should go. A

12:39

few days later, I'm sitting down with those

12:41

officers face to face. It's

12:44

been more than a year since our first

12:46

and only meeting, just after

12:48

Courtney died, and I'm recording

12:51

once again. When

12:58

I first heard Chapel's lease recordings,

13:01

I was disturbed by the way the officer

13:03

spoke to her, a grieving mother.

13:07

We want to make sure there's context to everything,

13:09

so we're gonna let large, unedited

13:12

chunks at this tape play out. The

13:16

first time I met police in that dingy old

13:18

building, I played alone because I needed

13:20

their help. The second time, I

13:23

didn't come to play with them. I don't needed answers.

13:25

I needed to know what happened to myself. That's part

13:27

of your record. We sat across

13:29

from each other from the conference table, white

13:31

board, vending machines, and fluorescent

13:34

lights department. I

13:36

brought in my big case Foul, which had

13:38

the paramedics report that

13:40

said my son had been handcuffed and

13:43

claimed he was violent and combative. This

13:47

just starts me greatly because

13:49

of the fact that my son was handcuffed.

13:51

I'm like, okay, if he collapses, at

13:54

what point he

13:56

was he arrived at the hospital and

13:59

uh, handcuffed? There was a police

14:01

officer that also followed the

14:03

amulance. And

14:08

this is what I'm upset because I'm

14:10

like, how do you guys not know that my son

14:12

was handcuffed? They

14:15

kept questioning what I had uncovered?

14:18

What when was he handcuffed? If you're saying

14:20

that he was handcuffed during the time, we never

14:22

said he was handcuffed. Man, Okay, what's that

14:24

is? I mean, that's a that's a a CPD

14:27

document. Okay, that's a CFD

14:29

Okay, okay,

14:32

So you're denying that he No, No, I

14:34

didn't say that. No, don't put

14:37

police. Don't put words in my mouth. I'm saying that

14:39

that's that's that's not a police department

14:41

document. That's just that first. Yeah,

14:43

that's a Chicago part of the document to

14:45

review it and cofens.

14:48

Okay, again, it says

14:50

handcuffs. Clearly I've

14:53

never know. Okays,

14:55

No, it's obviously touch what I never

14:57

know the handcuffed my baby as he was

14:59

dying. Don't know where and they acted

15:01

like it was routine. We can

15:05

see why the handcuffs were necessary, or

15:07

restraints, restraints whatever,

15:09

however he was restrainted wasps or folies

15:12

or whatever. Devices specifically said,

15:14

who's telling you at the hospital

15:17

that he was handcuffed? Oh?

15:19

The nurses? Everybody told me who because

15:22

we need to talk to specifically? UM,

15:24

I gave them the E R nurse's name, Clarissa

15:27

Hawkins. She's the one who told

15:29

me that Courtney was handcuffed to the stretcher

15:32

when he arrived at the hospital. They

15:34

should have been with him in the ambulance. That's

15:37

the policy completely Again,

15:40

if you put handcuffs on a patient,

15:44

you would also then in turn

15:47

put that information into

15:49

your file that said that this

15:51

person was handcuffs. I've never done

15:53

that. Why not? Why why

15:56

wouldn't he under arrest? Who

15:58

knows? You tell me he

16:00

was never? I

16:03

don't know, but I'm telling you I

16:05

don't know. It's a lot of things

16:07

that you told me that have not

16:10

panned out, such a one in regards

16:12

to his uh in

16:15

regards to him well here,

16:17

I have no no, no, You're you're saying a lot

16:19

of things. Tell me why I'm gonna

16:22

give you. Well, I've been investigating

16:24

in regards to this case. Okay,

16:26

go ahead, Okay. I felt angry. I

16:29

felt like they were gas lighting me, like they were just

16:31

sitting here lying in my face, even though

16:33

the proof is right in front of me. So

16:35

again, at one point in time from him,

16:37

what does that have anything to

16:39

do with a solving new shot up? What

16:42

does that have any Does that

16:45

have anything to do with a solving crime. No,

16:51

what they're saying is the fact that

16:53

he was handcuffed had nothing to do

16:55

with solving his murder. It's not probitive

16:57

evidence to solving the crime of who shot your

17:00

son, ma'am. Okay, you

17:02

want to do which is our end

17:04

goal? Which is our end goal? So

17:07

what so what this tells you? I'm I'm

17:10

more than Tom. Well,

17:12

you know what, I'm just kind of this way,

17:15

um, because back and forth,

17:17

back and forth, this could

17:20

have gone on forever. I

17:37

was mad as hell when they told me

17:39

that they still had not even talked to the on

17:41

same officers after a year

17:44

of investigating my son's murder. They

17:47

had their own reports and they just

17:49

assumed what was written was true, and

17:52

they were growing tired of listening to me

17:55

that's basically what you' that's

17:57

what the officer. These

18:00

are all assumptions, These are not facts.

18:03

Then they started talking very sarcastic

18:05

to me, flipping through their reports,

18:07

saying to each other, how many fouls

18:09

you got there? It appears you put some work

18:11

into its working it. I'm

18:14

not denying that he didn't put any work. I'm

18:16

just trying to make him long borrow. That's

18:19

my life, this is my chat. They kept trying

18:21

to tell me how much work they put into

18:23

the case, the

18:25

time driving around that neighborhood

18:27

looking for video with me and trying to

18:29

find video evidence. But they missed

18:32

up. I know they did because

18:34

I was talking to people that they had never talked

18:36

to. And if I could have talked to the

18:38

on SENE officers myself, I would

18:41

have certainty that

18:43

this is not a possibility. So what you're

18:45

telling me is this, you believe I

18:48

don't believe the police targeted

18:50

your son. I believe shot and killed

18:52

him in front of the police stage.

18:55

No. I believe that

18:57

not enough has been done to solve courtneys

19:00

murder. What would you like? What would you like done

19:02

that I haven't done. I

19:05

personally would have went back and reinterviewed everybody

19:07

to make sure that we They

19:10

assume police officers tell the truth,

19:13

but I don't. Sergeant Mitchell,

19:15

Yes, now they saw in the history

19:18

that no no, no, no, no, no, don't even don't

19:21

even no no, no no, no. What what

19:23

I'm saying to you is that this

19:25

problem didn't just occur with

19:28

Courtney Copeland's case. The breakdown

19:30

from the community. And you know, I'm

19:32

not not

19:33

just just

19:37

I am talking reality. I'm here to talk to

19:39

you until you begin to meet

19:42

to these

19:45

white men or having none of my experience

19:48

as a black woman in Chicago, your

19:50

department has not saying this particular

19:53

I'm just saying CPD in general has

19:56

a history that has been

19:58

tainted. I

20:01

know it's unfair, absolutely,

20:03

especially to these two gentlemen in this room.

20:06

Absolutely it is. I'm saying, I know it's

20:08

unfair, but that is just

20:11

bring it off because it's the reality that

20:13

it's not with these two guys, because I know him

20:15

personally, noting that they didn't

20:17

think to my son, I take offense to that. I

20:20

really do, because your painting would have

20:22

broad brush. Man, It's not a broader brush when

20:24

it's everyday reality.

20:27

Do you understand Okay,

20:30

start to I'm not you know what, do

20:32

you understand that that's the reality with black

20:34

and brown people in Chicago? Not?

20:37

And I'm telling you not what else. I wanted them

20:39

to understand that this wasn't only my

20:42

perspective. And if if I haven't been

20:44

clear on this, I apologize.

20:47

Our goal, our stated goal here

20:49

is to find,

20:52

arrest, charge,

20:55

and convict the offenders who did this series.

20:59

That's our state goal. Okay,

21:01

no variants, no nothing, no politics,

21:03

no bullshit, no nothing. And I'll tell

21:06

you something else. Regardless of what you may think

21:08

of me because I'm white, I it doesn't

21:10

talking that, but I love you to think

21:12

that. I really, I really

21:14

don't care because I've been a policeman long

21:16

enough where there's some people that just that

21:19

this is what is what they have a problem

21:21

with. I want to let you know, number one, I don't

21:24

have a problem with it. If that's the way you feel,

21:26

that's the way you feel about me, that's fine. I

21:28

just know. But I I just want to want

21:30

everybody. I

21:32

want to let you know it still is you.

21:35

You could spit on the floor when you see

21:37

me, it's still not going to affect me from

21:39

from from working, and

21:41

if I whether we never talk again

21:44

or we become good, it doesn't matter one

21:46

way or another to me. If something

21:49

good comes that I'm able

21:51

to pick up and run with, I'm gonna

21:53

I'm gonna run with it with with your son's murder,

21:56

And whether you yet thank me

21:58

or tell me to get fucked at the end all of this, it

22:00

doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I'm definitely

22:02

gonna thank you because that's my Yeah, I

22:04

want to know, why, so

22:07

do I. I? But no,

22:10

okay, so do I. But as far

22:12

as this whole black, brown, green ship,

22:14

it doesn't. I said, you can't

22:16

discount the history of what happened.

22:19

It was time ago. But before

22:21

I left, there was one more thing they wanted

22:23

to be sure to say to me. This also bothered

22:25

me from her conversation the other day,

22:28

the fact that you're recording me without

22:30

my knowledge or consent. If

22:33

you if you ask me something,

22:35

I'll answer you as truthful as I

22:38

know, but do not be

22:40

surreptitiously recording me. It's

22:43

all I'll tell you. It's

22:45

it's a crime. It's actually

22:47

not illegal, And I'm sure your attorney

22:50

would tell you the same thing, just like I

22:52

can't turn this on and record you. So

22:55

I'm okay with be a reported Well no more, I

22:57

know, but I have to let you know and I'm not okay

23:00

being recorded. So just so you know, I don't

23:02

nothing. I neither do I. But you're

23:04

still you do not have money

23:06

to record me. It's illegal. So

23:10

just so you know, because I know you've been recording me

23:12

every conversation. You're recording

23:14

me from the first time of first day we Matt,

23:17

why do you say that? Because do I have a reason

23:19

to record it? I don't know. You eidently

23:21

you think you do, because your your

23:23

whole focus on this thing is is

23:26

something the police did wrong. I

23:28

just wanted to know what happened to my son, and

23:31

to me, nothing was off the table.

23:35

What you're saying is he was calling

23:37

nine one one while he

23:39

was on the phone while the police

23:41

were and then the police killed him. I

23:43

don't know if the police kid. I don't know.

23:46

I don't they have good luck with your good

23:48

luck with your parallel investigation. I

23:50

don't know good luck. I

23:52

don't know good luck because you didn't get any answers

23:55

that I don't have. What I'm saying that I

23:57

am open to all scenarios, so am

23:59

I. By this time

24:02

the supervising sergeant had already

24:05

walked out the room.

24:15

Where you go, Okay, let's

24:17

hit it. I

24:24

needed to find someone who would tell me the truth,

24:27

someone who was right there outside the police

24:29

station. I

24:32

got the name of one of the e m t s who

24:34

cared for Courtney at the scene, Daniel

24:37

Cortez Allison,

24:39

and I decided to knock on his front door.

24:42

They probably think it's somebody electionary. Well,

24:47

what do you do? You want to write

24:48

a Right

24:51

as we were leaving, he opened the door. I

24:53

had a mic clip to my jacket, so that's why it sounds

24:56

a little fuzzy. Oh hi,

24:59

hi, the cortest. My

25:01

name is Pearl Wells. And you were one

25:03

of the mt that actually worked

25:05

on my son the night that he had passed away.

25:08

And right now actually uh chronic

25:10

chronicling this journey and a documentary

25:13

and I am recording right now. And I was

25:15

wondering if you had a few moments that I can talk to you

25:17

about. Yes, can

25:20

I show you his picture? And it was

25:22

on the on

25:25

Grand and Central. I

25:27

had Courtney's flyer with me, the same

25:29

one I had put up all over the neighborhood and

25:32

the picture of the BMW, and

25:35

we were actually trying to get some information

25:37

about his final moments. I'm

25:40

sorry, man, but I don't recall uh

25:43

much about it. I've been on the job

25:45

for many years and a lot of runs.

25:47

I'm sorry remember anything at all?

25:51

Was that black guy and a BMW. We

25:54

asked if you remember Courtney being handcuff

25:57

He says he didn't recall. I don't recall.

26:00

Okay, do you see a lot of gunshot victims

26:02

handcuffed? I

26:06

can't answer that, and I don't know. I'm not sure,

26:08

so okay, because what she's

26:10

concerned about her two things. One she

26:12

really wants to know just his final moments, which

26:15

it sounds like you just don't remember, okay.

26:17

And the other thing is it's very concerning

26:19

to her that he was handcuffed,

26:22

and this was before he was in the ambulance. And

26:25

so I'm

26:27

not a police officer paramedica, so

26:30

whatever their procedures are, I don't know, But I

26:32

know what paramedics don't handcuff people.

26:35

Do you remember your cuffs? That's

26:37

for the police. So you wouldn't have requested

26:39

the handcuffs on a patient unless

26:42

they're being physically violent towards me. But

26:45

you don't remember this. Unless someone's physically

26:47

being violent towards me, then I would have them arrested because

26:50

hitting meus like hitting a coff. Okay,

26:53

do you remember that? I don't know. I don't

26:55

recall that. I don't remember any of that. Do

26:57

you remember this case at all? Not

27:00

much. I've already explained that, so

27:02

you can stop questioning. Okay.

27:05

I don't need to be aggressive. I just wanted to already

27:08

an answer. So that's an answer, right, Okay,

27:11

was an answer. Okay, I'm

27:13

sorry for yours. Thank you, thank you

27:15

so much. Thank you for your time, for not

27:17

being better healthful, you know I got I'm

27:20

sorry for the loss health. Thank

27:22

you so much. All Right, have a good day. Thank

27:24

you. Let

27:31

me get this straight. He

27:33

didn't remember, he didn't

27:35

remember my son, who

27:37

was right in front of the district

27:39

police station. I

27:42

mean, like, how often does this happen?

27:46

Right? And there was one thing he specifically did not

27:48

remember though. Yeah, he didn't remember

27:51

Courtney being combative. He did

27:53

not say that Courtney was fighting,

27:55

he was violent. But this

27:58

is the narrative that they wrote in their reports.

28:01

I mean this whole case

28:04

for me is about uncovering the truth,

28:07

but it's also about clearing Courtney's

28:09

name. After

28:16

the Invisible Institute stepped in, all

28:19

of a sudden, the city had no problems

28:21

releasing the videos from the night Courtney

28:23

died. They also released

28:26

the police radio from that night, picking

28:33

a male of His name is Chicotey

28:35

Copeland, The birth

28:37

of a

28:41

second It's hard to understand,

28:43

but if you listen closely, the officer

28:46

says, he gave me a date of birth.

28:49

Then he pauses, he

28:51

gave me a date of birth, the

28:53

birth of The

28:56

detectives at the hospital told me Corton didn't

28:58

say anything after collapse, but

29:01

Courtney was talking to them and giving

29:03

them information. Finally,

29:09

almost five hundred days after

29:11

my son died, the city sent

29:13

me a bunch of DVDs in the mail. I

29:16

truly felt so sick about it because

29:18

what I was about to see. I

29:21

braced myself and I popped

29:23

the first one in the player in the bedroom.

29:28

The disc won't even play because

29:31

the city sent them in this crazy format

29:33

G sixty four, which I've never

29:35

even heard of. This

29:38

was gonna be the first time I was going

29:40

to see the final moments of my son, and

29:43

then for those videos not to play,

29:45

and they knew that I wouldn't

29:48

be able to open this format. It's

29:50

like they were trying to make it impossible for

29:52

me to find out the truth. But

29:57

about a week later, the folks from the Invisible

29:59

Institute were able to convert the footage

30:02

and they brought it over to my house. Thank

30:07

you for coming, technical

30:10

wizards. Thank you guys

30:16

have not you know? So

30:22

what do you think of it? Why

30:24

don't you watch that? Oh? But

30:27

we sat at the dining room table. It

30:30

was me, my mom, Brent,

30:33

Courtney's little sisters, and my

30:35

unc kimp. The

30:37

videos came from four different cameras.

30:40

The main one was in front of the police station.

30:43

There were also other camera angles

30:45

from around the block. Remember it's

30:47

in the middle of the night. The video is

30:49

kind of grainy and pretty bad. This

30:52

is the police station. You can see you, yeah,

30:55

the addresses. In the following too, we see

30:57

the BMW outside the police station.

31:00

The car is still running. We

31:02

can see the smoke coming from the exhaust pipe.

31:05

There are two police cars behind the BMW.

31:09

Then another one shows up with its lights

31:11

on. It looks like

31:13

Courtney's car has been pulled over, but

31:16

Courtney himself it's nowhere

31:18

in sight. Right

31:21

then the camera swings away, But

31:24

why would you move the ham here? You know it's something

31:26

going on over there. And you can see the lights bouncing

31:28

off right. You know there are cars right

31:31

and you can see them increase as a few

31:34

more cars come out. We don't even know

31:36

what's going on. We still

31:38

can't see where cortneyer is or what

31:40

the police are doing. Finally,

31:43

a few minutes later, the camera comes

31:45

back to the scene, but still no

31:47

Courtney. It looks like his jacket

31:50

that's there. It was freezing

31:52

that night. I know Courtney was

31:54

wearing his pea coat when he was shot. There's

31:57

a bullet hole in the back. But

31:59

here it is us crumbled up on the ground. Where

32:02

is he? A police

32:04

officers looking through the back window of the BMW

32:07

with a flashlight. And

32:09

then the camera pans

32:12

and we see Courtney for the first time.

32:24

Courtney is laying on the ground on his elbows

32:26

and he's shifting his weight. He

32:29

was wearing a red Nike sweater.

32:33

It was his favorite sweater. Courtney

32:35

is surrounded by officers.

32:38

Ye see right here, this is what the tow

32:40

drop driver saw see Courtney

32:42

is there on the ground. Look

32:45

at that. Hey wait a minute,

32:47

Look my

32:51

son is on his hands and knees.

32:56

He's reaching up for somebody to help him.

32:59

On the police radio, this

33:01

is when they call for more officers to

33:03

the scene. Courtney

33:06

is definitely not combative. He's

33:08

not violent or danger to others. Oh,

33:12

the E M T S are there now, right now,

33:15

there's an ambulance on the scene. There's

33:18

an unmarked car blocking part of the camera's

33:20

view of Courtney. Somebody,

33:24

either a paramedic or cop is

33:26

pulling him up like fast and forcefully

33:29

from the ground. It looks like there

33:31

could be a stretcher right there. The

33:34

video, it's really blurry here.

33:37

You can't really see what's going on. But

33:41

according to the paramedics report, this

33:44

is the moment that Courtney was handcuffed.

33:46

So handing this

33:49

has to be. This

33:52

is what they're doing on. This

33:56

is what they're doing on they're

33:59

comfortable. Oh no,

34:02

happier to be a combat it right

34:04

now. Just get through

34:07

his feet. Yeah, so

34:14

name what they're doing. Oh

34:32

oh, then

34:40

Courtney was gone. Maybe

34:43

he's in the ambulance. All

34:45

we know is that we don't see him again.

34:48

My whole family. We were all at the dining room

34:51

table, just holding on to each

34:53

other. We

34:58

went back through the footage of

35:00

Courtney's driving en route

35:02

to his girlfriend's house before

35:04

he got shot. Jamie

35:08

pointed out that Cordney's

35:10

BMW was being followed

35:12

by two police cars, one

35:15

mark and one unmarked, and

35:19

then these three cars

35:22

they disappeared off the screen, and

35:25

when we see Courtney next, he's

35:28

on the ground reaching

35:30

up for help and he's

35:32

surrounded by police.

35:57

When the Invisible Institute came to my house

36:00

with those police videos and

36:02

we saw Courtney on his knees,

36:05

shot and begging for help, I

36:08

saw for myself what I already

36:11

felt in my bone, the

36:16

taps. Here's

36:23

what we saw. Two police

36:25

cars following Courtney's

36:28

BMW. They're

36:30

all they're driving down the street.

36:36

The next time we see my son, he's

36:39

on the ground in front of

36:41

the police station. What

36:46

happened during those moments we couldn't

36:48

see between him driving

36:50

his car down the street and ended

36:52

up with a bullet in his back. Everything

36:55

was telling me that the police shot my son.

37:00

I sat with this for a few days.

37:03

I was by myself. My husband,

37:05

Brent was out of town, he

37:07

drives a truck, so he was on his job.

37:12

But then Jamie

37:14

from the Invisible Institute came back

37:16

to my door. He re examined

37:18

those videos and he had new

37:21

information information

37:24

that changed everything. The

37:28

idea that the police were implicated.

37:32

It seems much less likely now, okay,

37:36

um, which, as

37:38

I say, I'm speaking for myself, is

37:40

something of a relief. I

37:42

mean, we don't want that to be true, even

37:44

though a big story, but another

37:47

you don't want it to be true. After

37:50

he left, I called Brent and

37:52

explained everything. Hello,

37:58

Hey, can you talk. He

38:01

was out on the road driving

38:03

through the rain. The first

38:06

car that we thought were the police

38:09

that was not Courtney's vehicle

38:11

in the in the league Okay,

38:15

And they found some new evidence

38:17

that said that it may have happened

38:20

the way uh.

38:22

The police stated they

38:25

looked at the car more closely, the

38:27

shape of the trunk, the headlights

38:30

in the windows. It did not

38:32

match the structure of a BMW. It

38:35

turns out it was never Courtney's

38:37

BMW. We were looking

38:39

at the wrong car. And

38:43

there is a video showing Courtney's actual

38:45

car and you can see him going

38:47

down the side street not being

38:50

followed by anyone speeding

38:52

towards the police station. One

38:59

thing that Jamie said before he left the first

39:01

time is that he told me, now

39:03

we have to go investigate our investigation.

39:07

And I'm glad he did because

39:09

I wouldn't want to implicate wrongly

39:13

anyone for this murder.

39:18

So now it's seen that police

39:20

never followed Courtney's car after all

39:23

that it may have happened like the police told us

39:26

Courtney was shot and then drove

39:28

himself to the police for help. Uh.

39:31

You know, they still you know, feel that,

39:33

you know, he was treated kind of badly, but

39:38

they don't necessarily believe at

39:40

this time they actually

39:42

did the shooting. I

39:46

mean, it's it's hard to swallow, you

39:48

know, it's hard to swallow, you know.

39:51

Um. I mean

39:53

because Sunday I was feeling okay,

39:57

maybe they actually did do it, But

39:59

now I'm okay, maybe

40:02

they didn't. Look pretty much.

40:05

That gets square one where you probably

40:08

he still never find

40:12

camel, right, it's

40:15

still alighted down on. Yeah.

40:25

Yeah, it was just stormy

40:28

because it's because it's like a I food

40:30

now here, okay,

40:35

babe, I'm uh, I just

40:37

need to process all of this. I'll

40:42

be here for you as soon as I can. All

40:45

right, love, all right, by

40:48

bye. When

40:56

I thought police killed Courtney

40:59

and made me feel like his death served

41:02

some type of higher purpose like

41:04

Emmett Till or Lakwa McDonald,

41:07

they're killing actually woke up the

41:09

country with Emmett

41:11

Till when people saw

41:14

how he was murdered, they

41:17

were shocked to see such

41:19

brutality, and the

41:21

same with Lakwam McDonald. With

41:24

Corney dying, if the police

41:27

did it, it would

41:29

have been a major cover up and

41:31

it would have shook Chicago to

41:34

the core. But if

41:36

cops didn't kill him,

41:39

then his death was just another unsolved

41:41

Chicago murder. I

41:45

went from knowing who killed my son to

41:48

knowing nothing. I

41:59

talked with him Visible Institute folks and

42:01

Alison, you and Jamie told

42:03

me that you stay on the case and we

42:06

start this all again. But

42:08

the way police treated Courtney

42:10

still wasn't okay, and it

42:12

wasn't just We need

42:14

to reckon with this and we need to

42:16

find out who really did kill Courtney.

42:20

So that's where we're headed next. But

42:22

first we needed to better understand how

42:24

we got this wrong. So I sat down

42:27

with Jamie to talk about it. So

42:30

I think we were in retrospect predisposed

42:34

to find that the police

42:36

were implicated in the murder At

42:39

the Invisible Institute, our goal is

42:41

to hold public institutions accountable, and

42:43

we see a lot of cases involving police

42:46

abuse. In the past decade, the

42:48

city of Chicago has paid out more than

42:50

a half a billion dollars in police

42:52

misconduct lawsuits. All

42:54

of this is true, and it

42:57

influenced the way we saw those videos. Now

43:00

we had to walk back our assumptions and

43:03

start over again. The metaphor

43:05

of walking back and assumption feels

43:07

exactly right. You're really trying

43:10

to to reorient and

43:12

and reboot the

43:15

really the entire investigation. Alison,

43:19

what's been your experience with police. My

43:22

perspective on the police has changed

43:24

over time. When I was a kid, I

43:27

thought, like a lot of white people do, that the

43:29

police existed just to keep

43:31

everybody safe. One time,

43:33

I was in my twenties and I thought

43:35

someone was breaking into my apartment, so

43:38

I rushed into my closet and I called nine

43:40

one one, and when the police came, they

43:42

just told me it was a raccoon officer.

43:46

Friendly. Then later

43:48

as a reporter, I've called

43:50

on the police to help me with stories, and I've also

43:53

had to call out the police and report on their

43:55

abuses of power. Now

43:57

I'm married and my husband

43:59

is black, and he's been pulled

44:02

over by police searched by dogs

44:04

twice. The last

44:06

time this happened, he was actually on his way back

44:08

from a job interview and wearing a suit. We

44:12

have a three year old son, and he was

44:15

actually just a few months old when I met you, Chapral

44:18

So your story about losing

44:20

your son just hit me right

44:22

in the gut. I

44:24

remember um having

44:27

the conversation with my son of

44:30

how to interact with police. Make

44:33

sure you don't reach for anything. Cortney,

44:35

be very calm, be very

44:37

polite and courteous. Yes,

44:40

sir, Yes, ma'am. You

44:42

have to have these conversations. It's

44:45

like it's different for white

44:47

people in America and black

44:49

people in America. It has

44:52

always been different, and

44:56

there has always been a

44:58

sense of h I believe

45:00

comfort for white people in

45:03

a sense of fear for black people

45:05

when it comes to police. Right. I wasn't raised

45:07

to fear the police, and we were.

45:10

For me and Brent, our fear goes way

45:12

way back. Both

45:15

our grandparents. They grew up in the South. You

45:18

know. My grandmother was born in nineteen

45:21

Yeah, my grandfather's a nineteen and

45:25

they saw a lot and my grandmother

45:28

actually had to flee from the South

45:31

because of all the hangings and the

45:34

lynching and everything like that. My grandmother must

45:36

always called him the man. You

45:38

know, we had to flee from the man. We

45:40

had to leave because of the man. She

45:43

said that, you know, she only experienced

45:45

some type of freedom when

45:47

she came to Chicago. I'm

45:51

just glad that she didn't see what happened

45:53

to Courdney, because I don't think that she would

45:55

be able to have survived

45:58

it. Yeah. Sometimes

46:01

I just sit here and I just think,

46:03

like I'm still in

46:06

the days. There

46:09

was m a rhyme

46:12

that came to mind that I heard

46:14

back in high school, like senior year,

46:16

because it's talking about police and police brutality,

46:19

and it said you were

46:22

put here to protect us,

46:24

but who protects us from you? I

46:33

remember when Courtney was about six

46:35

months old. It was the summer,

46:39

and we were staying with my grandmother in

46:41

the Inglewood area.

46:45

One day, we were all sitting on the porch, just

46:47

me and my cousins, my uncle's and

46:50

then all of a sudden game. Bankers just

46:52

started shooting out of nowhere, and

46:56

I remember my uncle grabbing Courtney

46:58

out of my hands and rushing

47:01

us up in the house upstairs so

47:03

that we can be safe. I

47:07

remember telling myself, I

47:10

cannot lose my son to these

47:12

streets. That

47:14

day, I said I'm moving. I

47:17

lived out of my car for about two weeks

47:19

until I was able to secure an

47:22

apartment. I was like, my

47:24

son is going to have a chance of

47:27

surviving, and that

47:29

was my goal, was just to keep him safe,

47:31

to keep him out of harm's way so that he

47:33

can grow up and and enjoy

47:36

his life without worrying about being shot and killed

47:38

in Chicago.

47:44

C O. P E l A n D. First

47:47

name Courtney. Um

47:52

can I have a date of three

47:55

four sixteen. I've

47:57

been dreading it, but I went back to

47:59

the place where they did Courtney's autopsy,

48:02

the medical Examiner's office, the

48:05

mom The last time I

48:08

was there, I identified my son's

48:10

body on a metal slab. That's

48:12

the doctor that did the examination. That's

48:14

the case number, and then this is the

48:16

doctor's assisting she'll be able to speak

48:19

with you and maybe set up something where you guys

48:21

can speak about it and clarify.

48:24

I was there because my son's case was

48:26

coming down to two questions. One

48:29

who killed Courtney? I

48:31

promise you we're gonna dig into that soon.

48:34

And two did police do

48:37

everything they could to help him?

48:42

I needed to know if my son

48:44

could have survived this injury. There's

48:48

a note in the hospital records

48:50

that Courtney's a order got hit, that's

48:53

the main artery in the body,

48:56

But the autopsy report says

48:58

nothing about that order getting hit. In

49:01

fact, it says it was intact.

49:05

So I just left the

49:07

emmy's office. I

49:10

want to know, but I

49:12

don't want to know. So anyway,

49:15

I'm gonna give them a call and

49:18

see what they say. Hopefully

49:21

they could answer these present

49:23

questions. The

49:26

eight order getting hit means he

49:28

would have bled out within minutes, and

49:31

this all mattered because there were delays

49:33

in Courtney's case. Yes,

49:36

I felt that they took too long to

49:38

get him to the hospital. From

49:41

the time that he was on the scene in front of

49:43

the police station into the time

49:45

that they drove off in the ambulance, it

49:48

was about thirteen minutes. Every

49:54

part of me wants to believe that my son

49:57

could have survived. Every

49:59

part part of me. Every

50:02

part of me wants to believe that

50:06

I had time to get

50:08

to him. Every

50:10

part of me wants to believe. So,

50:16

Chapel, you were waiting to get answers from the medical

50:18

examiner, and we'd already tried to talk

50:20

to Courtney's surgeon, but the hospital wouldn't let

50:22

her speak to us. So in the meantime

50:24

we turned to other medical experts to look

50:26

at the case. From the Corners

50:28

report, it appeared that the bullet

50:30

went through his lung and then it was launched

50:33

somewhere in the muscles of his left neck. Grace

50:35

Chang is a trauma surgeon at Mount Sinai,

50:37

a hospital on Chicago's West Side. We

50:40

actually talked to three trauma surgeons, but

50:42

Dr Chang was the only one whould go on the record,

50:45

and right away she told us something that

50:47

helped us understand why there was no

50:49

blood in Courtney's car, because

50:51

he wasn't just bleeding out, he was

50:54

bleeding in. You could

50:56

say, his his chest cavity was filling

50:58

with blood. Yeah. Um,

51:01

that's a pretty large receptacle. It can hold

51:03

a live hold several leaders of blood Assentially.

51:05

Dr Chang described the emergency surgery

51:08

when doctors opened up Courtney's chest. You

51:10

go in there, you resuscitate their heart, and you

51:12

can also fix and stop the bleeding. So that's

51:14

why you do that. She also

51:17

noticed the discrepancy between the surgeon's

51:19

report and the autopsy report about

51:21

the a ORDA asked had it gone through the a ORDA? Typically

51:24

that's not a survival injury either, So

51:28

that's why I watch my butt down to the

51:30

Medical Examiner's office for answers.

51:33

Was Courtney's a order hit or

51:35

not? Did he have a chance

51:37

or not? In

51:40

the next day, they called me

51:42

back Alice, and I

51:44

hoped right on the phone right after she

51:46

said her finding when she

51:49

did the autopsy, Uh, they

51:51

did. She didn't find any damage today order.

51:53

So that's why she didn't include it in her in

51:56

her autopsy. And she's like,

51:58

you know, you know he did lead out. Um

52:01

Uh, she said you could tell that by the amount

52:03

of blood that was in his chest. She

52:06

had actually reviewed his file again and

52:08

she says that his order was intact.

52:11

It still brings me back to had

52:13

they taken him to the hospital right

52:15

away, because he's begging him

52:18

like he helped me, help me.

52:20

Don't stand around looking at me, helped

52:22

me get me for the hospital. For

52:25

the life of me, the life of me, Alixon,

52:28

I can't say that that

52:31

he would have survived. I can't say

52:33

a I just wanted

52:35

them to give him a chance. They didn't

52:37

give him a chance. Courtney's

52:46

heart stopped in the ambulance four

52:48

minutes before he arrived at the hospital.

52:51

If he had got there just a few minutes

52:53

earlier, maybe he could have been

52:55

saved. So every delay

52:57

mattered. We

53:02

kept coming back to the fact that Courtney

53:05

was handcuffed. Reports

53:07

say it was because he was combative,

53:09

and by the way, it's not uncommon for trauma

53:12

patients to present a combative, especially

53:14

when they're losing lung function, but

53:17

handcuffs aren't used when trauma patients

53:19

are combative. A spokesperson

53:21

for the Chicago Fire Department told me

53:24

they're paramedics, don't use handcuffs,

53:26

they don't have handcuffs, and they don't

53:28

restrain people with handcuffs. We

53:30

exchanged dozens of emails,

53:33

but then when we asked the spokesperson

53:35

about Courtney's case specifically, that's

53:38

when their story changed. He told

53:40

me they requested cuffs because Courtney

53:43

was flailing in the street. Before paramedics

53:45

arrived. But that's just not what the

53:47

video shows. It doesn't

53:49

make sense. Well, we know at this

53:51

point that they had his plates, and they had

53:53

his name, and they knew that the car wasn't registered

53:56

to him, and they were treating him

53:58

as a suspect more in the victim.

54:01

That's just the bottom line. You can see

54:04

him reaching up begging

54:06

them for help. You see this

54:08

on this tape. And

54:11

the fact that

54:13

they're saying that they're only

54:17

resolution was to handcuff him.

54:21

I just know that they wouldn't have done this to somebody

54:23

who was white.

54:33

Um okay, let me

54:36

just pull up the video. It's

54:39

about roughly nineteen minutes

54:41

into the video. But um,

54:44

h okay,

54:48

he's a guy in the red hoodie. I

54:51

mean, looking at this segment of the video,

54:53

it looks as if he's lying

54:56

there mostly a mobile as police

54:58

are kind of standing up ound him. Stephen

55:01

Russian as a professor at Loyola Law School.

55:03

He specializes in police reform. We

55:06

wanted his take on the police's treatment of Courtney,

55:09

so we watched the footage together of Courtney

55:11

outside the police station and

55:13

there's a crowd of officers just milling around

55:15

and it does not look to me as though he's receiving

55:17

any medical treatment. It looks like he's being

55:19

treated like a suspect. Because I think one thing we haven't

55:22

talked about is the number of officers around

55:24

him, all of which is relevant. If you're going

55:26

to say he's a threat, if he's a risk other

55:28

people, threat to the officers,

55:30

you have one too, three four officers

55:33

looks like and yeah, if you hadn't he hadn't put this in

55:35

context for him, it looks like they are handcuffing

55:38

a suspect to bring him in for

55:40

an arrest. There were at least eleven

55:42

police officers on the scene. I

55:44

asked Russian about another fact.

55:47

There were no police on board the ambulance to unlock

55:49

the handcuffs. Courtney's ear

55:51

nurse, CLARESSA. Hawkins told us they couldn't

55:53

get to work on Courtney right away because

55:55

they had to wait for the police to arrive. Um,

55:58

if they're arresting someone suffering

56:00

a you know, life threatening

56:02

wound, and that person has to go to the

56:05

hospital and they're in cuffs, do you

56:07

know whether the police have to accompany

56:09

in the ambulance follow because

56:11

I think they would need to be there to like on handcuff

56:14

it, right, so it's not. But in

56:16

this case they weren't in the ambulance.

56:19

As a lawyer of that starts down there like a

56:21

civil liability issue there immediately

56:23

right. What

56:26

Russian is saying is this, by

56:28

handcuffing Courtney and not going with

56:31

him in the ambulance, police officers

56:33

may have stood in the way of Courtney's life

56:35

saving treatment. There's

56:37

another delay that also bothered

56:39

me. Courtney was shot on the northwest

56:42

side of Chicago, but got transported

56:44

all the way east to Illinois Masonic

56:47

Hospital in the Lakeview neighborhood.

56:50

Paramedics and Illinois are supposed

56:52

to take the gunshot victims to the closest

56:54

trauma center that can take them.

56:57

The closest trauma center was

56:59

not Anoymasonic, but

57:01

maybe it was the fastest one to get there that night.

57:04

Nope, we checked that out too,

57:08

So we found out that there were actually two

57:11

other trauma centers that were closer

57:13

and faster to get to, Strosure

57:15

and Mount Sinai. Not dramatically

57:18

closer, but when we're talking about life

57:20

or death, minutes really do matter.

57:23

It could have saved him another five to ten

57:25

minutes on the road. We looked at

57:27

all different routes, times of day, and

57:29

traffic patterns, and why

57:31

these four or five or even

57:33

ten minutes matters. It's

57:35

because my son's heart stopped

57:38

four minutes before getting to the hospital.

57:44

Every day. I can't help

57:46

thinking about the difference

57:48

those few minutes could have made. I

57:52

mean, what do you do

57:55

with this information?

57:58

None of this makes sense to me. I where

58:01

to God not if it makes sense. It

58:05

hurts my heart. I'll tell you I'm

58:08

sorry. I

58:10

think Courtneys. You know, I

58:16

didn't want to say he's lucky because what happened

58:18

to him was so unlucky. But you

58:21

know, if you're going to have any mom in the world to

58:23

get answers for you, you wanted to be Chaparral

58:25

Wells. Police

58:31

never found any physical evidence in the car,

58:34

just some broken glass on the street. The

58:36

state crime lab analyze the bullet

58:38

fragment lodged into Courtney's neck and

58:41

the bullet jacket, but it just wasn't

58:43

enough to identify a gun. But

58:45

we knew a neighborhood two shots,

58:49

so where's the other bullet? I'm

58:57

just surprised that there wasn't anything

59:00

recovered from the autopsy

59:03

um or or in the car.

59:05

That's just just kind of amazing that there was

59:07

nothing. We talked to this firearms

59:09

forensic expert, David Brundage. He

59:12

said he was surprised police didn't find

59:14

anything when they processed the car. The

59:17

police searched the car unseen. Brundish

59:20

said they should have also searched the car

59:22

under better lighting, like an open

59:24

garage.

59:28

So actually, let me get my evidence back ready.

59:31

Brundage told us that sometimes bullets

59:33

can hide in the seams of car seats.

59:36

They just leave tiny slits

59:38

and until you remove the seat and search,

59:41

you'll never know. It could

59:43

actually lead us to the murder weapon. He

59:46

said the second bullet might still

59:48

be in the car and gave us instructions

59:51

on how to search for it. Well not so.

59:56

We found a BMW certified mechanic

59:58

at a little auto shop in the sub birds. He

1:00:00

agreed to help us take the car apart,

1:00:04

both the seat the

1:00:07

entire seats and

1:00:09

take it out of the bat and then where are you gonna put it?

1:00:15

We took out the front seats. After

1:00:17

all this time we saw some broken glass. All

1:00:20

right, Chaparral, you want a girl ahead and grabbed that

1:00:22

glass. Tell

1:00:25

many pieces? Is that one, two,

1:00:28

three, four or five? Six? Okay,

1:00:31

so we don't find anything here,

1:00:34

Where's the bullet? We

1:00:37

kept searching, but we didn't

1:00:39

find a bullet. We did find

1:00:42

some debris that looked like it could

1:00:44

be something, so we put it in evidence

1:00:46

backs. We

1:00:50

sent them back to the firearms for rented expert,

1:00:53

and we waited. When

1:00:57

we got the news, we were disappointed.

1:01:00

I'm getting you have some sort of news to report.

1:01:03

Yes, well, yes,

1:01:06

it is not very very informative. But

1:01:08

I finished looking at the physical

1:01:12

items that you shipped

1:01:14

to me. I did find

1:01:16

one kernel of gunpowder.

1:01:21

Yeah. He

1:01:25

told us that when he looked at it under a microscope,

1:01:27

all he could see was that the gunpowder was

1:01:30

likely from the Winchester Owl Incorporation,

1:01:33

which sells to a number of ammunition

1:01:35

companies. It could have been

1:01:37

used in almost any type of gun.

1:01:42

Well, at least we looked because

1:01:45

our investigation was going

1:01:47

to be thorough. Now

1:01:51

that we were rebooting the investigation, we

1:01:53

all returned to the street where we believe Courtney

1:01:56

was shot, the spot where his friends first

1:01:58

collected broken glass and saw skid marks,

1:02:00

and where a neighbor said she heard shots fired.

1:02:04

Courtney was shot on Chicago's northwest

1:02:06

Side. It's a neighborhood called

1:02:08

Belmont Craigan. I

1:02:10

went out there right after Courtney died, putting

1:02:13

up posters, knocking on doors,

1:02:16

begging somebody to tell me

1:02:18

something. We knew that you'd already covered

1:02:20

this ground, but now we wanted to hit every

1:02:23

single house between there and the police

1:02:25

station. We needed to find

1:02:27

witnesses. Chaparl

1:02:29

is going to lead the way. Um, but how many

1:02:32

cards do you How many spots

1:02:34

do you have? I got three, I got the feats

1:02:36

down. I got three spots. We set

1:02:38

out with a crew, a group of journalism students,

1:02:41

of course, use Chaparl, me and our producer,

1:02:43

Bill so

1:02:46

Chaparral. We're in your van, the same one

1:02:48

that you used to haul Courtney and his buddies to basketball

1:02:50

games as they were growing up. And I noticed

1:02:52

a strawberry air freshener dangling

1:02:55

from your rear view mirror, and this necklace

1:02:57

that belonged to Courtney. The necklace

1:02:59

was us a medallion that he had earned

1:03:01

from world ventures. It reminds

1:03:04

me of him, and it makes me feel close to him.

1:03:11

So the first thing you wanted to show us the police

1:03:14

cameras near the station. But I

1:03:16

knew that that camera, that's the camera that rotates.

1:03:18

Do you see all these cameras boom

1:03:21

boom boom. It's like Kadrean cameras

1:03:23

right here, and you tell me that you don't have any camera.

1:03:29

We drove over to the intersection of Grand and

1:03:31

Central, the police station where

1:03:34

Courtney collapsed on the ground. We

1:03:36

put on our blinkers and we got out. It

1:03:39

looks like they still have his photo up. Check

1:03:44

Bill and are at the lighthole on the corner,

1:03:48

and there was a flyer with Courtney's face on

1:03:50

it. It was one of the reward

1:03:52

posters I had put up more

1:03:54

than a year before. We

1:03:57

went inside. Bill and I stood on the

1:03:59

side of the tree right

1:04:01

outside the police station. Yeah,

1:04:03

his photo is still there. They

1:04:08

were tearing them all down, but I'm glad to see that this

1:04:10

one it's still up. It's

1:04:16

him.

1:04:19

It's been almost two years. Everything

1:04:23

right now is a mystery, everything

1:04:27

because it's not just about police killing

1:04:30

black people, but it's also

1:04:32

about them allowing them to die to

1:04:35

him that he was nothing but a niggle on

1:04:37

the street who got shot. I

1:04:40

feel that sometimes

1:04:43

you know, when you go through these situations,

1:04:48

the dead could no longer speak, so

1:04:51

you have to do it for them. Right

1:04:53

in the middle of all of this, a cop

1:04:55

pools up behind us because he

1:04:57

asks Bill, if we got into an acci

1:05:00

that we're

1:05:03

good. You know the reason why you guys are blocking traffic

1:05:07

right? Her son died right here, right,

1:05:10

and so we're I feel bad for that, but I

1:05:12

mean, you guys could have parked over here this way. You're not

1:05:14

gonna what are your sofa? Move

1:05:18

out the way, don't block traffic.

1:05:21

We called it a day rush,

1:05:25

bro. Thank

1:05:25

you everybody,

1:05:37

so bods every day

1:05:42

Nobody's nothing, no

1:05:46

body right. Somebody

1:05:51

is a co production of The Invisible Institute,

1:05:54

The Intercept, Topic Studios,

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with Tenderfoot TV. I'm

1:06:01

Chaparral Wells. This podcast

1:06:03

is produced by Alison Flowers and

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