NYC sucker-punch suspect back at Rikers Island after release on no bail for downgraded attempted murder
Bui Van Phu was rearrested for a parole violation after attack on Jesus Cortes
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The New York City suspect let back onto the streets following a caught-on-camera sucker punch knockout attack was returned to Rikers Island on Saturday amid public outcry over his initial release.
Bui Van Phu, a 55-year-old homeless convicted sex offender, had been released without bail on Thursday. He was initially arrested on Wednesday on an attempted murder charge, but that offense was downgraded to third-degree assault and second-degree harassment – misdemeanor offenses that are not bail-eligible crimes under New York state’s 2020 enacted controversial bail reform law.
Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul – a staunch supporter of the bail reform law enacted under her former boss, Andrew Cuomo – said she contacted the Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark and ordered corrections officials to "immediately examine" if Phu violated parole terms following the Aug. 12 unprovoked beat down of 52-year-old Jesus Cortes outside the Fuego Tipico restaurant in the Bronx.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}At a subsequent corrections hearing, a state corrections official told a judge that Phu was a member of the notorious Born to Kill street gang founded in the 1980s by first-generation Vietnamese immigrants, N.Y. Daily News reported. He was re-arrested Friday and was returned to the notorious Rikers Island jail complex on Saturday.
NYPD released video of an Aug. 12 unprovoked assault that unfolded at approximately 10:45 p.m. in front of 163 E 188 St in the Bronx. (NYPD)
NYC sucker punch assault suspect is a convicted sex offender. (NYPD)
"He has a substantial risk of not returning to his parole," Department of Corrections and Community Service Officer Nixon Ribera said at the hearing regarding Phu, according to Daily News.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Video released by the NYPD allegedly shows Phu put on work gloves on Aug. 12 before approaching Cortes, a Mexican immigrant whom he never met, from behind outside Fuego Tipico and delivering a single blow to the back of his head, laying him out on the concrete. Cortes remains in a coma as of Saturday after suffering a skull fracture, broken cheek and brain bleeding.
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Phu was previously convicted of first-degree sex abuse in the Bronx in 1995 and was sentenced to six years to life in prison. He was paroled in 2019 and is now registered as a Level 3 sex offender — the most serious designation — for sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl in 1994, according to state records.