Introducing Somebody Episode 1: Courtney
The Intercept Briefing
The Intercept
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 15 April 2020
⏱️ 30 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On March 4, 2016, Shapearl Wells wakes up to a bamming at her door. It’s the police, telling her that her 22-year-old son, Courtney Copeland, has been shot. Detectives tell her Courtney drove his BMW to a police station for help. But Shapearl’s grief turns into suspicion when police start asking her questions, so she launches her own investigation into her son’s murder, teaming up with journalists from the Invisible Institute to confront the cops and find the truth about Courtney's death.
This week on Intercepted: We air the first episode of Somebody, a new podcast from the Invisible Institute, The Intercept, Topic Studios, and iHeartRadio, in association with Tenderfoot TV. Somebody explores the racial disparities and turbulent relationship between law enforcement and citizens in one of America’s largest cities.
Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and for more information go to somebodypodcast.com.
Intercepted will be back next week.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, Intercepted listeners, it's Jeremy Skehill. We are giving our producers a break this week, |
| 0:05.2 | and we're going to be back with a new episode of Intercepted next week. But I did want to let |
| 0:10.0 | our listeners know about an important new podcast that the Intercept is producing in partnership |
| 0:15.6 | with the Chicago-based journalism nonprofit, the Invisible Institute, along with topic studios |
| 0:21.4 | and I Heart Radio. It's also done in association with Tenderfoot TV. It's called Somebody, |
| 0:27.6 | and it's a seven-part series that documents Shapiro Wells' quest to find out what happened to her |
| 0:34.0 | son, Courtney Copeland, a 22-year-old man who wound up dead with a bullet in his back outside of |
| 0:40.8 | a Chicago police station back in 2016. Somebody explores the racial disparities and turbulent |
| 0:47.9 | relationship between law enforcement and citizens in one of America's largest cities. Weekly |
| 0:54.5 | episodes are now available wherever you get your podcasts, but here for Intercepted listeners |
| 1:00.2 | is the first episode of Somebody. |
| 1:09.3 | What you are about to hear in the following episode does not implicate the Chicago police |
| 1:13.9 | in the murder of Courtney Copeland. |
| 1:15.9 | When my son Courtney was 21 years old, he got a BMW convertible. |
| 1:28.8 | He loved that car like it was his girlfriend. He would talk to it like good morning. |
| 1:34.5 | Hello, baby. |
| 1:35.9 | And those dears, baby, boy, those dears, come on, start, smell more, mm-hmm. |
| 1:40.9 | The first time baby rolled into our driveway, it was late at night. |
| 1:47.9 | Courtney had the music blasting all the way up. |
| 1:55.1 | It's like like a little black party, you know, in the middle of my driveway. |
| 2:01.2 | He had to top down. It wasn't even that hot outside, but of course, he had to top down. |
| 2:06.5 | It was a beautiful moment and that was probably one of the most happiest moments I've seen him. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Intercept, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Intercept and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

