A Florida man who claimed he was brutally beaten and left permanently blind by his ex-boyfriend’s family says he thought he was going to die during the assault, according to a new report.
The unidentified victim, 31, said to WSVN-TV in an interview this week that his beau, Oleh Makarenko, 21, had told him his parents learned of their relationship and were enraged.
During a two-week relationship hiatus, prosecutors say, Oleh and his parents, Inna Makarenko, 44, and Yevhen Makarenko, 43, showed up at the victim’s house in Pompano Beach in August.
The victim said Oleh had turned against him and joined his parents in the attack.
“I was thinking I was going to die and there’s no way I was going to walk out of there alive,” the man — now permanently blind — told the outlet.
Inna and Yevhen Makarenko, who accused the victim of turning their son gay, are facing attempted murder charges along with their child, according to prosecutors.
,[Oleh] was a little afraid of his family or very afraid of his family,” the victim told authorities, according to the outlet. “He was telling me that his dad was treating him like he wasn’t even his child, that his mom was trying to force him to marry a girl, and I’m quoting what his mom said to him. She wanted … to force him to marry a girl to ‘take all this [expletive] out of his head.'”
Oleh, whom he called Alex, and the parents confronted him before the assault.
“Alex told me he hated me, and I told [his parents], like, ‘Unfortunately, no matter what you do, it’s not going to change that your son is gay. I’m sorry, but your son is gay,’ ” he recalled.
The man initially told authorities that he sustained severe injuries after falling during a drunken episode before later regaining his memory of the event and pressing charges.
The Makarenkos have all pleaded not guilty, and their lawyers deny that they were involved in any attack.
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