The convicted sex offender who allegedly left a Bronx man in a coma after a vicious sucker punch said he shouldn’t be behind bars because his victim survived.
“That sh– don’t make no sense,” Van Phu Bui, 55, whined in an exclusive jailhouse interview with The Post. “He’s alive. He’s not dead. I thank God he survived. I didn’t want to hurt him that bad. I just hit him once.”
Bui was initially freed without bail in the terrifying, caught on video attack on Jesus Cortes in the Bronx, but was later thrown in jail after Gov. Hochul urged prosecutors to upgrade charges against him.
A sex offender on lifetime parole, Bui claimed he blacked out after arguing with Cortes inside the Fuego Tipico Restaurant on East 188th Street in Fordham Manor on Aug. 12 around 10:45 p.m.
A video still of the vicious sucker punch attack. DCPI“I can’t really remember anything. I was so mad,” he moaned, adding, “I blacked out.”
As Cortes walked outside, Bui snuck up behind him and delivered a brutal knockout punch to the unsuspecting 52-year-old, who then slammed down hard on the concrete, security footage shows.
Cortes was left limp on the sidewalk with a fractured skull, broken cheekbone and brain bleed.
“I’ve never done anything like that before. That was my first time (hitting someone),” claimed Bui, a Vietnamese refugee who spent two decades behind bars for sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl in the 1990s. “I’m not a violent person. I’m not like that. I wouldn’t do it again.”
The violence caused an uproar after The Post featured the story on its front page, highlighting how prosecutors initially downgraded an attempted murder charge against Bui — who is on lifetime parole — and allowed him to go free.
The ensuing outrage prompted Hochul to intervene, after which she crowed that she “took action in my own hands” to get Bui off the streets.
Bui, who was arrested again on Aug. 19 for violating his parole with the attack on Cortes, was described as an “imminent threat” at a subsequent court hearing.
“I’m sorry. I know I did something wrong. That’s why I turned myself in,” Bui said multiple times throughout the interview.
Bui was out on the streets until Gov. Kathy Hochul intervened. Tomas E.Gaston“The judge told me don’t talk to him and stay away from him,” Bui said of Cortes, “but If I could see him, I’d apologize and tell him I’m sorry. If he wants me to pay the medical, I don’t mind paying his medical (bills).”
