In the hospital, Motley tried to come to grips with what had happened to him, and with the apathy he saw about crime and its victims in the city he grew up in. You just get so frustrated that there is just no real system of attacking the situation, but just reacting to the situation, Motley said in a recent interview.
After surgery, Motley recuperated at the house of his friend, Milwaukee filmmaker Brad Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein had been with Motley s son, Seoul, when he learned his friend had been shot. I remembered just thinking to myself, the main thing is to tell him (Seoul) what happened but make sure he knows his dad is alive, Lichtenstein recalled.
/ Claude Motley shows the x-ray of his jaw after being shot in the face while visiting home in Milwaukee.
During the first three months of 2021, 232 people have been shot in the city of Milwaukee according to the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission. If you look back over the last decade, this is the highest number in the first three months of a year that Milwaukee has seen. While deaths from gun violence are down about 25%, nonfatal shooting victims have risen almost 58% when compared to 2020.
A new documentary,
When Claude Got Shot, showing now at the Milwaukee Film Festival documents the wide ranging and damaging effects gun violence has on people across Milwaukee.