NYC sucker punch suspect says he ‘blacked out’ during the attack and is not a ‘violent person’

A convicted sex offender accused of putting a New York City man in a coma with a vicious sucker punch says he “blacked out” during the attack and claimed he is not a “violent person.”

“That sh– don’t make no sense,” 55-year-old Van Phu Bui told the New York Post in a jailhouse interview.  “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.”

“I can’t really remember anything,” Bui added. “I was so mad. I blacked out.”

New York Post reported that Bui expressed the sentiment in the interview that he didn’t belong in jail and said he would help pay for the victim’s medical bills.

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“The judge told me don’t talk to him and stay away from him,” Bui said. “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).”

Bui insisted that he has “never done anything like that before.”

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“That was my first time (hitting someone),” Bui, a homeless Vietnamese refugee, claimed. “I’m not a violent person. I’m not like that. I wouldn’t do it again.”

Bui, who spent two decades in prison for sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl, was freed without bail immediately following the attack in the Bronx last month that left 52-year-old Jesus Cortes hospitalized with a fractured skill, broken cheekbone, and brain bleed.

Bui was later rearrested for a parole violation following public outrage.

Bui allegedly approached Cortes just before 11 p.m. Aug. 12 and assaulted him as he was standing with a group after leaving a restaurant. 

From behind, he allegedly delivers a hard blow to Cortes’ head, lying him out on the concrete. Police said the two had no interaction beforehand and that there’s no indication the alleged attacker and victim knew each other.