A gay couple in
Atlanta suffered severe burns after allegedly being doused
with boiling water in their sleep. (WARNING: contains graphic
images)
Marquez Tolbert
and his boyfriend, Anthony Gooden Jr., said they were sound asleep on the
evening of Feb. 12 when they were jolted awake by the sensation of scalding hot
water being splashed across their bodies.
“We were just
burning. My body was just stinging,” Tolbert told Project Q Atlanta. “It was like a really, really severe
kind of stinging. I could hardly think straight.” (Hear him speak about the
incident in the WSB-TV news report above)
The assailant,
they said, was 48-year-old Martin Blackwell, who is the boyfriend of Gooden’s
mother, The Washington Post reports. Police records show Blackwell was arrested Feb. 13 on
two counts of aggravated battery and is being held without bail.
Tolbert, 21,
believes he and Gooden, 23, were attacked because they are gay.
During the
attack, Tolbert told WSB-TV, Blackwell “pulled me up and said, ‘Get
out of my house with all that gay.’ I couldn’t stop screaming.”
Meanwhile, a
police report cited by Project Q Atlanta quoted Blackwell as saying he was
disgusted by the couple, who had been dating for about six weeks at the time of
the alleged attack.
“They was stuck
together like two hot dogs,” Blackwell told police, according to the report. He
also claimed the two men were having sex when he walked in, although Tolbert
family friend Vickie Gray denied that charge to The Washington Post. “I poured a little hot water on
them and helped them out,” he said. “They’ll be alright, it was just a little
hot water.”
The couple
suffered second and third-degree burns as a result of the alleged attack, according to WSB-TV. Tolbert spent 10 days in the
hospital, while Gooden returned home March 11 after five weeks.
This is horrific! I hope the victims receive the rewards of justice in this incident.
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