Sex Offender Who Sucker Punched Man Causing Brain Bleeding Shockingly Freed Without Bail

A 55-year-old convicted sex offender who punched a man outside a New York restaurant last week was freed without bail while his victim remained in a coma, according to reports.

Police initially charged Bui Van Phu with attempted murder over his apparent random attack on Jesus Cortes, but the Bronx District Attorney's Office chose to charge him with misdemeanors assault and harassment instead, the New York Post reported.

Cortes, 52, was leaving the Fuego Tipico restaurant along the Bronx's East 188th Street at around 10:45 p.m. on Aug. 12 when Phu punched him from behind, surveillance footage showed.

The victim, who fell onto the sidewalk and hit his head, was taken to Jacobi Medical Center with a skull fracture, broken cheekbone and bleeding in the brain.

He required brain surgery and has since been in a medically induced coma, according to authorities.

The motive for the attack remained unclear.

"I don't understand why that happened to him. When I saw the video, my brother was just standing and no doing nothing with nobody, he was getting ready to go home," Cortes' brother was quoted as saying by News 12 The Bronx.

Phu, who was already on lifetime parole at the time of the attack for a previous sexual assault case, did not know the victim, police said.

The two men did not appear to have had any interactions before the incident.

The New York Police Department arrested Phu Wednesday. He allegedly confessed to the crime to his parole officer.

"I hit someone, and he's in the hospital. I don't know if he's dead. The police are looking for me," Phu told the officer, according to a complaint against him.

The Bronx District Attorney's Office went with Phu's reduced charges following a court appearance, and he was freed without bail, a report by the New York Daily News said.

Prosecutors did not disclose their reasons for not going with the attempted murder charge initially filed by police.

"It's just something crazy, because he had previous criminal history. I'm in shock right now because I didn't expect that," Anel Cortes, the victim's 29-year-old niece, said in response to Phu's release.

Under New York state's bail reform laws, assault is typically not eligible for bail unless another factor in the case allows it, such as another pending, active case where a suspect is accused of causing harm to someone.

Phu was convicted of first-degree sex abuse in the Bronx in 1995 for sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl the year before, state records showed.

He was sentenced to six years to life and prison and paroled in 2019.

Phu is now registered as a Level 3 sex offender, the most serious designation.