i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." i'm craig melvin, and thim, i'm so sorry"ng i'm craig melvin, and this is dateline. >> i remember telling him i'm so sorry mommy wasn't there for

you. i cannot rest until i find out who did this and why. who shot him? was he shot while he was in the car? >> who lives there, like why would he be there? >> the only trouble he would ever get in -- >> he was texting, making phone calls all at the same time. >> you finally see the video from the police camera. >> i can't get that image out of my head. >> i saw him dying. >> my family immediately went into action. >> she found out a lot of things on her own. >> yes, she needed to keep investigating. >> i knew i needed to do the work myself. >> it is the community that is failing here. >> my son deserves justice. i will keep fighting for him until my last breath.

>> hello, and welcome to dateline. courtney copeland was larger- than-life , gifted salesman and caring son be loved by everyone who knew him, then one night, he was shot while sitting in his car. desperate for help, courtney sped straight to the police. what they did and did not do would launch a mother's unrelenting quest for answers. here is josh mankiewicz with "the story of somebody." >> sometimes it is a sound that brings it all back. the thump of a basketball on a rim or backboard. that is when shapearl wells can almost see him again. her son and his friends playing ball late into the night

. his name was courtney, but on the court, he was hard work 34, a left-hander who could shoot with either hand. her son, who bounced through life, dancing with the dog and his sisters. singing in his car, his joy made anything seem possible. sometimes, those memories help his mom, shapearl , forget the horror of what came next, and the person she had to become. do you have any experience been an investigator? >> no, not at all. i am a mom on a mission. the last thing that his mom can do is go and find out who did this to him. >> shapearl 's long battle to solve the mystery of what happened to her son forced her to confront questions that went beyond courtney , questions about who gets justice in chicago, in this life, in this

country and who does not. >> it was almost like a willful -- willfulness to know what happened the court me. >> if you want to get away with murder in america, kill a black person? before we answer that let's go back to march 2016. it was cold the way only chicago can be. shapearl was asleep in her bed in suburban cicero . >> around 2:00 a.m., i hear this thunderous beat at my door. >> police shown their flashlights through the windows and what followed was terrifying news. her 22-year-old son, courtney, was in the hospital and she says they did not tell her why. >> i remember falling to the floor because -- >> because of he's in there

with a broken leg, they're going to tell you that. >> yes, so i knew that this must be bad. >> her first thought was an accident. courtney was well known for texting, dancing, snapchatting while behind the wheel of his beloved bmw. at the hospital, the family was taken back to see courtney, to a room with chairs and kleenex. clarissa hopkins is one of the nurses. >> i just remember shapearl kind of like immediate starts shaking. >> finally, the doctor came in. >> he said that my son had arrived with a gunshot wound. >> shot in the back. they had done all they could, but courtney was dead. >> i remember grabbing her and holding her hand and hugging her. >> i remember us all proclaiming , who shot him? because, that was the furthest thing from my mind, that my son was shot and killed.

>> of course, in the parts of chicago that appear more often in police reports than in tourism ads, living a peaceful life does not immunize you against death at the hands of another. did you ever worry about him getting caught up in the violence that seems to be raging in chicago in recent years? >> i would say i worried when he was in high school, like you know, once he graduated from high school i was like he made it. he's safe. >> that night at the hospital, shapearl says police gave her only the basics. courtney had been found across town in the neighborhood shapearl hardly knew, and she says they had a question for her. >> who is the owner of the bmw, and i said my son. >> seemed like an odd thing to ask, but shapearl had more pressing questions, like why courtney had even been in that neighborhood.

friends gathered at the hospital, including courtney's best friend, chris pineda. he told shapearl and the police he had seen courtney just a few hours earlier in cicero in the parking lot next to their local pizza joint. >> he was like man, i just started reading this new book. i'm writing all the things i want to accomplish in my life. he was just so happy. >> chris says courtney was headed home, so how had he ended up in northwest chicago? >> i started asking who lives there, who do we know that lives there? >> finally, someone at the hospital put two and two together. that neighborhood was for alma lived. >> i remember saying who is alma, where is she? she walked in and said that's me. >> that is when shapearl learned courtney had a secret girlfriend. shapearl wanted to talk with her, hoping to learn something, anything about courtney's last moments, how he had come to rest in the hospital for shapearl had just said

goodbye. >> seen him had to be the hardest thing you've ever gone through. >> it was, it was. i remember telling him, i'm so sorry mommy wasn't there for you. i can imagine how he felt so scared. i don't know what happened to you. >> in that instant, shapearl made a promise to herself and her son. she would do everything she could to find out what did happen. and, nothing was going to stop her. coming up -- >> first of all, you have our condolences. >> a meeting and the recording. >> was he shot while he was in the car? >> in the car.

>> the questions for police were just beginning. >> by the time i make it back to the car, i am in tears, and i'm like, they did something to him. they did something to him. >> when dateline continues. him. >> when dateline continues. no tunes today? no. my apartment was robbed last night. took my cable ready tv, vcr, portable cassette player. yup. all the latest tech. if only progressive had renter's insurance like their home insurance. then we could bundle our cars and get the same 24/7 protection. -i think we just invented that. -huh. this is the best day ever. well i still got robbed. well still pretty good day. it's started. it's... the side hug. tween milestones like this may start at age 9. hpv vaccination—a type of cancer prevention against certain hpv-related cancers, can start then too. for most, hpv clears on its own.

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everybody wants super straight, super white teeth. they want that hollywood white smile. new sensodyne clinical white provides 2 shades whiter teeth and 24/7 sensitivity protection. i think it's a great product. it's going to help a lot of patients. i think it's a great pshapearl wells had finally stopped crying. in place of tears came something else. shapearl wells had finally stopped crying. in place of tears came something else. >> there are a lot of uneasy questions and unanswered questions that are rolling

through my mind. >> and her fog of grief, shapearl decided to start making audio recordings of her journey , maybe a way to make sense of it all. >> first of all, you have our condolences. >> thank you. >> and so, shapearl was recording and she and her husband met with chicago police detectives a few days after courtney's murder. >> were going to do everything we can and follow the evidence where it takes us to bring the person that did this, or persons, to justice. >> the audio captures police interacting with a murder victim's family in the early days of an investigation. >> everybody we have spoken to said your son was a great kid and nobody has had a bad word to say about him. >> that was no surprise to shapearl . courtney was a mama's boy. >> my mom just came back from wisconsin. she bought me that this hat. say gucci.

>>, he was close to brent, his stepdad. they bonded over wrestling and jokes from the time he was little. >> he would say like what you call stolen cheese i say i don't know. and he would say nacho cheese. i'm like oh. >> foster dad told me cut the grass. >> and, he was fiercely protective of his younger sisters. after a semester away at college on an athletic scholarship, courtney was home again working and hanging out with friends. courtney had a lot of those. >> you have the ability to make everyone feel like he was there best friend. >> that's a pretty good skill to have in business. >> it is. >> courtney was in business with joe mendoza and jessica soda, selling memberships to a travel club called world ventures and courtney hustled his heart as he had on the basketball court, determined to earn enough so his mom could stop working.

>> you will tell you, if my mom is still working, i got to work triple, 10 times harder. >> it was so normal for me to wake up to a message from him at 6:00 in the morning, 7:00 in the morning, you know. >> courtney's hard work was paying off. that flashing bmw he drove was a bonus from world ventures. he picked it out himself. >> to get the convertible in chicago? >> courtney. he does. bay bay, that's what he called her. >> he named his car? yes. >> now, bay bay was in police custody. courtney's beloved car was potential evidence in his murder , and shapearl sat across the table from cpd detectives. >> based on evidence that you have now, was he shot while he was in the car? >> in the car. >> exactly where that had happened was not clear.

somehow, courtney, seriously wounded, had driven himself to a police station where he asked an officer stopped at a traffic light for help. >> who was the officer on the scene that assisted my son? >> there were several officers at the scene and they were comforting to her son. we know that for affect. >> the detective said that already spent time knocking on doors, looking for witnesses, so far without much luck. >> we have a lack of witnesses, and that's any case. your son's case, any case, you want witnesses. you need people to tell you things that happened. >> shapearl thought she could help. she told detectives someone had contacted her on facebook. that tipster sat on the same night courtney was shot, he had seen three men driving around the area and a grand marquis. later, he had seen them tossing a handgun under a truck. >> that's already been addressed. >> that is actually almost an hour afterwards. >> so, this was a separate incident? >> separate incident, correct. >> detectives did say they

would not rule anything out and told shapearl how they planned to work it. >> the way we work as we work from in to out, closest to out, you know, where courtney was at, what he was doing, who he was seeing. >> and surely, no one was closer to courtney that night, then alma, his secret girlfriend. alma said courtney texted her he was outside her apartment that nice night, then never showed up. shapearl wanted to be sure detective spoke with her. >> i did not know almond. i don't know if she had crazy boyfriends or what happened. >> the sergeant reassured shapearl . >> normally throughout the courses of these investigations, we speak with people numerous times. >> before she left, courtney's mom begged the cops to take this one personally. >> fight this case as if it was your own child. >> absolutely. >> shapearl is not one to sit around and wait. while detectives work , she

detective -- requested courtney's medical records from the hospital, anxious to know all she could about his last moments. what she read changed everything. by the time i make it back to the car unlike in tears. i'm like they did something to him, brent, they did something to him. >> shapearl makes an alarming discovery about the official version of events. coming up -- >> i immediately thought that this was maybe a traffic stop gone wrong and that they're hiding something. >> video from the night of the shooting. what did shapearl see in her sons final moments? >> we were able to see with our own eyes that what they said about him was a lie. >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues.

shapearl needed some place to think. she just picked up her murdered son's medical records from the hospital only to spot something she absolutely did not understand. he was handcuffed. he was handcuffed. that is what the paperwork states. >> handcuffed?

shapearl 's husband took her to a restaurant to sit down and look over the paperwork. >> when i walk in the door, lo and behold, it's the nurse. >> the same one who'd comforted you at the hospital? >> yes, the same one who had comforted me at the hospital, and i said, i have to ask you a question. was my son handcuffed? >> they had him handcuffed to the bed. >> nurse clarissa hawkins remembers the handcuffs vividly. she says the medical team could not immediately transfer courtney to a hospital bed because he had one handcuffed to the gurney. >> so, we were like okay, where's the police? we need these handcuffs off so maybe about a minute or two went by and the police rushed in and then handcuffed him. >> why would a shooting victim be handcuffed? >> i would say in my years of practice i have never seen a gunshot victim handcuffed, so in my opinion, he was treated more like a suspect rather than a patient. >> that is what shapearl

thought, too, especially when she remembered police asking her at the hospital if courtney owns the bmw he was driving. courtney was the owner, she told police, although his name was not on the car's registration. he had bad credit so he asked his friend to sign the papers. >> sounds to me like police are asking about the car because there wondering whether he stole the car, right? >> yes. you know, i could understand if they ran his plates but none of this matters. i felt that the concern should not be with the car. it should be about saving his life. >> the official explanation for the police handcuffs can be found in the paramedics report. courtney had been violent, agitated, a danger to others, but why would that be? there were no drugs in his system. the police review later said traumatic shock made him combative.

a spokesman for the paramedics told us courtney was handcuffed for medical reasons, and he was not in custody. >> they're claiming that people experiencing trauma sometimes fight because they are frantic. >> handcuffing is not something that is normal, even if the person is violent and agitated or flailing. >> we checked out several experts are trained paramedics. they told us that while gunshot victims do sometimes need to be restrained for their own safety, it is unusual for any patient to arrive at an e.r. in handcuffs unless they are in police custody. >> if it was a white child, would he have been treated the same way? >> to shapearl , it seemed police had racially profiled her son from the start. which led her to another place. what if the police courtney had gone to for help had been the ones who killed him? >> i immediately thought that this was maybe a traffic stop gone wrong, and that they are

hiding something. >> that instant suspicion speaks volumes about both the state of policing in america and the relationship between the chicago cubs and the communities they police. >> safe to say you were already, to some degree, mistrustful of chicago police before your son was ever shot? >> yes. >> a few months before courtney's mother, chicago was engulfed in protests following the release of video showing the police shooting of a teenager named laquan mcdonald. >> dramatic dash cam video showing officer van shooting mcdonnell 16 times. >> the officer who shot him was later convicted of second- degree murder. all of that made shapearl wonder if there was video of her sons encounter with police. she had counted at least 10 police and private cameras in

the neighborhood where courtney had been shot. what had they recorded? police would not let her see the footage. >> so that heightened my suspicion again. >> she filed public records requests, organized rallies, and enlisted the help of a nonprofit journalism foundation called the invisible institute. 500 days after courtney's murder, ship earl -- shapearl was allowed to view the video police had found of her sons final night. she quickly realized she had been wrong. courtney was not shot by police. >> you came to believe the police were not involved in the shooting? >> yes. the evidence did not point to them being involved. >> there was courtney's car zooming down the street. a minute later, another camera captured it stopped next to a squad car. courtney's voice on the 911 call. >> 911.

>> i've been shot. i've been shot. >> the police officer immediately called for help. >> send an ambulance right away. >> suddenly, something else is clear to shapearl , something that made her angry all over again. nowhere on the available video did she see courtney being violent, agitated, or a danger to others, as is written in the paramedics report. what she did see was her son talking to police, answering their questions. >> the victim was a male. his name is courtney copeland. he gave me a date of birth. >> we were able to see for our own eyes that what they said about him was a lie. >> this moment on the video haunts shapearl . her son raising his arm to the cops who she says treated courtney with suspicion rather than compassion.

>> could you imagine? looking at a video and your son is reaching up, begging them to help them? at that moment, i can imagine courtney feeling the life leaving his body. >> more than a year after courtney's mother, his mother did not trust chicago police to solve it. she decided she would do that herself. shapearl wells was just getting started. coming up, you understand that in this country there is almost no family of any homicide victim who believes that the police are doing enough? >> but, i don't think that a lot of families have access to the evidence that i had. >> evidence ship earl hunts down more. >> a woman reported that she heard gunshots. >> is the puzzle coming together? when dateline continues. datel. but this is a not flash.

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frantic, president biden sat down for his first television interview since last thursday's presidential debate. the president strongly rebutted calls for him to drop out from the race based on his performance from the debate last week. in london, incoming uk congressman kier starmer addressed his party selectionsend quote, change begins now. labor out of power 14 years, won in a landslide. for now, back to dateline. welcome back to to dateline. i am craig melvin. shapearl wells suspected detectives were hiding something about her son, courtney's shooting. she says a look at video from that might confirm those fears. in her eyes, officers had treated courtney like a suspect despite his pleas for help.

shapearl is about to team up with a resourceful new ally to launch an investigation of their own. back to josh mankiewicz with "the story of somebody." >> one year after a murder, you expect detectives to know a whole lot about their victim. so, how well did chicago police detectives know courtney copeland? >> you two were among his closest friends, so i mean, if i were investigating his death, i would be talking to the two of you. what was going on in his life, what was he seeing? you didn't like him? did police ask you this questions? >> no. i was never interviewed by any type of detective. >> they didn't sit you down and ask you any of that stuff? >> no. it is surprising because they should have, you know? >> shapearl had obtained some copies of the detectives case reports . in spite of the

reassuring words about working the case in to out, it looked as if they had never set up interviews with any of courtney's friends. you understand that in this country, there is almost no family of any homicide victim who believes that the police are doing enough? everybody wants to see more of an effort. >> but, i don't think that a lot of families have access to the evidence that i had. >> after months investigating her son's case, getting her hands on those reports, recording her interactions with police and walking the neighborhood, shapearl wells had teamed up with allison flowers, the director of investigations at the invisible institute. allison shared her work with us. >> one thing that i did was i went through all his past

calls, all his recent text messages and tried to just understand in the days leading up to his death, what he was up to, and if there was any trouble going on in his life. >> allison did some investigative work that did not seem to be duplicated in the police case file. she went to courtney's phone and built a timeline of his last day. he chatted with his grandma and had gone to a work event. later, after the meeting with chris, he had gone home, posting a snapchat outside his house. >> i've just got to believe in myself. >> them, he turned around and headed off to say alma. >> is texting alma that he's outside, simultaneously to talking to another girl on the phone, we think, and then his facebook messaging's friend, brandon, who had just gotten a new job. >> 90 seconds later, since bmw is racing toward the police station less than a mile away. >> i've been shot. >> so, where exactly did the shooting happened? >> i mean, it's the most basic of facts to know where courtney

was shot. >> we have broken glass at belden and long. >> allison tracked down police dispatch tapes and heard how an officer had found broken glass after the shooting around the corner from almost apartment. maybe glass from courtney's car window. allison knew from an old parking ticket, the spot was close to where courtney park 20 went to visit alma. >> there was also a woman who lived on the corner at the time to spoke to one of courtney's friends and reported that she heard gunshots, so we do have several data points telling us for this likely occurred. >> a few hundred feet from mom's apartment, who would've wanted him dead? could courtney possibly have been involved in something illegal? >> no. >> he was scared.

he was too scared for that. the only trouble he would ever get in would be with women. that's it. >> women were his weak spot? >> yes. >> so, he was going through chicago like the fire. >> i would say more than chicago. yeah. >> it was kind of international. >> chicago was just his headquarters. >> yeah. >> because courtney and alma worked together, they kept the romance under wraps. jessica knew about it and worried. alma had confided in her that her ex-boyfriend was possessive and jealous. and on courtney's phone, allison read something about another of alma's exes. >> she had indicated to him that a few days prior, one of her exes had left jail or prison in a different state, and that was of some concern to her. >> had shapearl asked detectives about whether alma had a crazy ex-boyfriend? yes, she had. there was a handwritten note in the police documents about one of alma's boyfriends who did not like courtney.

however, there was no sign anyone have followed up on that. so, allison decided she would. it was time to talk with alma. >> turns out, alma has crucial details about the night of the murder. >> when you heard the shots, did you think oh, that could be courtney? >> it did not cross my mind. >> a new clue from alma, had she shared it with police. >> they said they were going to call me and after that, i never heard from them. >> i didn't understand. this is normal detective work. >> when dateline continues. ork. >> when dateline continues. with wegovy®, i lost 35 pounds. and some lost over 46 pounds. ♪ ♪ and i'm keeping the weight off. wegovy® helps you lose weight and keep it off. i'm reducing my risk. wegovy® is the only fda-approved weight-management medicine that's proven to reduce risk of major cardiovascular events in adults with known heart disease

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if you've watched a lot of "dateline," you know detectives usually talk extensively with the victim's partner or significant other-- if you have watched a lot of dateline, you know po detectives usually talk extensively with the victims partner or significant other. probably, more than once. police had briefly spoken with alma, courtney's girlfriend, the night of the shooting. after that, there was no indication in case reports that detectives had gone back to alma, and it did not look as if they had followed up on a tip about her jealous ex. >> i did not understand why they didn't do a thorough examination of alma. i mean, this is normal detective work. >> so, shapearl and allison went to interview her, recording that conversation. >> you are alma? hi, i'm allison. >> elma repeated what she told police. courtney had texted her he was

outside but she never saw him. she texted back to see if he was okay and then without an answer, she had gone to sleep. >> what did you think happened at that point in time? >> i mean, i was a little bit worried but it's not unlike him to change plans quickly. >> alma said police had never asked her if she had seen or heard anything that night. >> they just gave me their business card and said they were going to call me to speak with me and after that, i never heard from them. >> they never questioned her about her ex-boyfriends, so allison did. alma told her yes, she had an extra did not like courtney, but he was no murderer. >> you did not feel like he could be involved in this in some way? >> no. >> if police had interviewed alma, she might've told them she had heard two gunshots that

night. >> when you heard the shots did you think oh, that could be courtney, or did it not even cross your mind? >> it did not cross my mind because around that time there was just a lot of things going on in the neighborhood, so we had heard gunshots before. >> allison tracked down another witness who had heard gunshots around the same time, and she showed us that location was just a few blocks from alma's apartment. >> she was parking by the high school. >> a woman, named elaina, also saw a car speeding down an alley and thought it might be connected. she called 911. >> i will send someone over to check it out. >> a month later, detectives investigating courtney's case went to interview elaina. she told them her husband, edgard, had also seen the car and its passengers. >> but, police did not interview him even though she told detectives he had been right there in the alley when the car was passing through.

he had seen the guys. in fact, he had the best look at the guys because the window was down, the alley was extremely narrow, so he had a front row seat to who was in that car. >> here is where some of the puzzle pieces seem to start coming together. the make of the car edgar saw, a grand marquis, the name of the car the tipster told shapearl about. and this, allison spotted what looks like a grand marquis and some of the video. here it is around the time of the shooting near the intersection where courtney was killed. remember, the tipster said he had seen the man in the car ditching a handgun, and he had called 911. >> it appears they throw again under the car. >> in response to that car, police arrested two guys that night. they were known gang members, and charged with parole

violations, but there is nothing to suggest detectives investigated them in connection with courtney's murder. >> it is also -- almost like a willfulness to not know. >> i saw a story last night and said 37 people were shot this weekend in chicago and five of them were killed. should we be surprised that police don't do all hands on deck for every single murder? because they seem like -- these guys seem like maybe they were kind of numb to it. >> perhaps they were, but it also begs the question, what are they here for? they're not preventing crime and they're not solving them either. >> it all pointed to a troubling hypothesis. >> there is an institutional indifference to solving cases when it comes to people of color. >> this man says the numbers tell a story. >> so, the best way to get away with murder in america is to kill a black victim?

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welcome back. the police investigation into courtney copeland's murder had stalled, but his mother shapearl's had not. she and her allies discovered two known gangsters welcome back to. the police investigation into courtney copeland's murder had stalled, but his mother shapearl 's, had not. she and her allies discovered two known gangsters were seen fleeing the area moments after courtney was shot . another witness saw them ditch a handgun, so why hadn't they been questioned about courtney's shooting? shapearl wanted answers from

chicago police and she was not the only one. here is josh mankiewicz with the conclusion of "the story of somebody." >> exactly 2 years after his mother, a mother deliberately drove the roads her son had taken the last night of his life. >> i wanted to see what my son was seeing with his point of view, what he was thinking. >> just after 1:15 a.m., shapearl wells pulled her sons bmw to a stop on the same asphalt where he had flagged down police. >> you feel better when it was over? >> no. i did not feel better, but i was like courtney, mommy is here. mommy's here. you're not alone. >> and, shapearl knew she was not alone, either. in 2016, the year courtney was killed, there were 778 murders in chicago . that same year, police solved, or in their

words, cleared 56% of murders involving white victims. for black murder victims, the sulfate was just 26%. thomas hargrove is the founder of the murder accountability project, a nonprofit that has collected and analyzed four decades of homicide reports nationwide. his data is used by numerous police departments around the country. he says racial disparity when it comes to solving murders is not just a chicago problem. >> in 2019, the most recent year for which we have data, caucasian murders were cleared at a rate of 81%. that's the best it's ever been for white murders but for african-americans, it's been in the 50s lately. >> hargrove says that is true all over the country, in cities big and small. communities urban or rural, solve rates for black murder victims are lower than for any

other racial group, and they are continuing to drop. >> so, the best way to get away with murder in america is to kill a black victim? >> if you generally kill a black victim, your odds are better than if you kill a victim of any other race. that is simply what the data showed. >> police departments across the country are prioritizing murders in which the victim is white? >> i would not believe that. i really wouldn't. i don't think it is a general racism among detectives but i do think there are factors that take solubility out of their hands. >> statistically, murders involving black victims are more likely to be committed by strangers or by gangs. those cases are harder to solve. hargrove says overloaded homicide detectives need more manpower and training. that takes more money, and if race plays a role, it is and how and where police dollars get spent.

>> unfortunately, in a great many places, insufficient resources are being applied because of the political decision on how much effort shall be made in these kinds of times. >> without those resources, hargrove says, murders will go unsolved and the result is a devastating spiral. if the cops are not solving murders, potential witnesses do not feel safe enough to speak up , and killings continue. >> murder begets murder, especially unsolved murder. >> you had tremendous success closing homicides at a rate i think better than the national average. what is the secret? >> one thing i truly believe helped in our successes that we had relationships in communities in which we work. >> dr. cedric alexander was chief of police in dekalb county, georgia, and later became a law enforcement analyst for nbc news. he said solving murders has to involve cooperation between police and citizens. what is needed is the kind of connection that seemed to be

missing in courtney's case. >> any time that you have a body drop, nothing is going to be more important than an eyewitness account, or someone who saw something or heard something. >> for people who don't want to talk to you, that requires a certain level of trust between the community and the department. >> number one, you got to have trust. >> 10 months after courtney's murder, department of justice investigation concluded community trust in the chicago police department was broken, and urged police to fix it, saying, increasing community trust and confidence in cpd is necessary for cpd to be able to clear more homicides. the cpd's motto is, we serve and protect. a year after courtney's murder, shapearl saw a department that had not protected courtney or serve her . she went to meet with the cpd again and once again, she was recording. by

this time, her relationship with detectives had deteriorated and she challenged them on their record. >> you all only have a 26% resolve rate in the city of chicago. >> you know, people can talk about the police department as far as that goes but it is the community that is failing here. >> the surgeon said his detectives had been working courtney's case hard. >> somebody knows what happened here and they're not coming forward. i mean, we get spit on. we get kicked out. we get punched. you know, people refer to us as pigs. all this sort of -- and you know, we are looking for help from the community to help your son, who is a good kid, and nobody wants to come forward. >> to shapearl , that now sounds like an excuse. what about the potential witnesses who called 911 that night, and when we last spoke with courtney's girlfriend, alma, she told us detectives still had not spoken with her. >> they did the bare minimum. the bare minimum is what

chicago police department did in my son's case. >> the chicago police department declined to discuss courtney's murder with us, saying it is still an open case . an internal affairs investigation of how police treated courtney at the scene concluded officers had done nothing wrong. in a 2021 email, the department said all cases are investigated thoroughly, which is pretty much what they said to shapearl in the first meeting with detectives. cpd also said there murder clearance rates were improving but did not address the racial disparity we asked about. they did tell us about a reorganization involving new homicide teams supported by gang units and better technology and pointed to an investment and neighborhood policing. chicago's police superintendent david brown announced that in june, 2021. >> arguably, this will be the most significant commitment of effort, resources and leadership to building trust in chicago pd's history.

>> chicago's inspector general looked into the way police handled courtney's case and identified multiple violations by police. the report says the sergeant at the scene failed to supervise how handcuffs were used. it also cited the detective who worked the case as being disrespectful in his conversations with shapearl . the cpd disagreed with most of the reports findings, but did acknowledge the case detectives should have communicated with shapearl in a more appropriate way. shapearl continues to look for answers her way. >> courtney was energetic and outgoing. he was so handsome. >> you are listening to true crime podcasts before this and then suddenly, you became a true crime podcast. >> yes. >> shapearl hosted a podcast about her son's case called somebody, produced by topic studios, the intercept, and the invisible institute.

she wanted to tell the story of what happened, and what did not. >> i'm going to take you with me step-by-step in my investigation. >> the podcast was a finalist for the pulitzer prize, but shapearl is not sure the people she really wants to hear her are listening. >> i have no faith in chicago police department. >> so, your mission is not over? >> know. i will keep fighting for courtney until my last breath, until they bring me a convicted murderer. >> you know that won't even the scales? >> no, but i feel that my son deserves justice. >> and, that is all for this edition of dateline. i am craig melvin. thank you for watching. . keith morrison: they seemed like the ultimate power couple. kathy inzerillo: she told me she would be travelling on secret missions.