The FBI has opened a hate-crime investigation into the incident in which an Atlanta man allegedly poured boiling water on two gay men as they lay in bed.
Steve Emmett of the FBI’s Atlanta office said Friday that the agency is working with the College Park Police Department and the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office in the case.
“It’s important for the public to know that we are taking a look at this case,” Emmett said.
Martin Blackwell, 48, is in the Fulton County Jail on two counts of aggravated battery, according to jail records. Blackwell’s girlfriend is the mother of one of the victims.
The attack happened at an apartment on Buffington Road in College Park in February. Victim Anthony Gooden shared the apartment with his mother.
According to the police report obtained by Channel 2, the suspect told authorities that “it was just a little hot water on them.” He described disgust with the men’s relationship in the police report.
One of the victims, Marquez Tolbert, spent 10 days at Grady Memorial Hospital undergoing surgery, which took skin from his thigh to replace skin from his back. Gooden got out of a hospital last week.
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