Mother whose partner poured boiling water on her gay son denounces ‘hateful’ attack
By Ben Kelly
A woman whose boyfriend poured boiling water on her son and his boyfriend while they slept has spoken out about the horrific attack.
Kim Foster, of Atlanta, Georgia, is the mother of Anthony Gooden, who was sleeping with his boyfriend Marquez Tolbert upstairs in her house. However, her boyfriend Martin Blackwell disapproved of the pair because they were gay, and threw boiling water on them, causing extensive third degree burns.
Foster told WSB-TV Atlanta that she had no indication Blackwell was capable of this, but said they had argued because he was disgusted the pair were sleeping together in the house.
“I said, ‘That’s not your house. You need to mind your business. That boy don’t bother you. This is not your house,’” she recalls.
She says she was shocked when she found out what Blackwell then did.
“When I got there and saw my child, I wanted to die,” she said.
Gooden was severely burned on his face and the front of his body, and spent 2 weeks in a coma. He is likely to face 2 years of recovery. His boyfriend Tolbert suffered second and third-degree burns on his neck, back and arms, and spent 10 days undergoing skin graft surgery.
“He’s not human,” Foster said of her former boyfriend. “He got hatred in his heart and God’s gonna deal with him. I don’t know how somebody could be so hateful. You could be with somebody for a long time and not even know who they are.”
Her injured son has also been speaking out about the attack.
“I just feel like that was real hateful,” he said. “You didn’t have to do that to nobody. You could have walked out the door. Could’ve walked down the street. Could have done anything. To pour hot water on us? That’s evil.”
He also spoke about coming to terms with the physical effects of the attack.
“Yeah I hate looking in the mirror. But it’s healing. It’s healing everyday now. Sometimes when I think about [it], I get angry. But I also know how to pray and ask God to release that anger and bring me happiness.”
Tolbert also spoke to the local news outlet, saying, “The pain doesn’t let you sleep. It’s just, like, it’s excruciating, 24 hours a day, and it doesn’t go anywhere. It doesn’t dial down, anything. It’s just there.”
Martin Blackwell remains in jail, charged with two counts of aggravated battery, but crucially, Georgia does not have hate crime laws. However, the FBI are looking into it, which could lead to further charges.
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