An Atlanta gay couple is recovering
from serious burns inflicted by a family member.
On February 12, Anthony Gooden, 23, and
Marquez Tolbert, 21, were sleeping at Gooden's apartment which he
shares with his mother when the man she is dating, 48-year-old Martin
Luther Blackwell, spotted the pair sleeping on a mattress in the
living room.
“We woke up to boiling water,”
Tolbert
said. “I started screaming uncontrollably and I was pulled out
of the house. We ran to the neighbors and called the police.”
Blackwell reportedly told the police
that he “poured a little hot water” on the men because “they
was stuck like two hot dogs.”
“They'll be alright. It was just a
little hot water,” Blackwell told investigators.
Both men were hospitalized; Tolbert,
who
underwent a skin graft, for 10 days and Gooden for five weeks.
Tolbert told Channel
2 Action News that the pain was unbearable: “It's just like
it's excruciating 24 hours a day.”
Blackwell is currently being held
without bond.