NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — The man who was knocked unconscious by a stranger during an unprovoked attack outside a Bronx restaurant is able to speak again after being removed from a ventilator, his family told the Daily News.
Jesus Cortes, 52, was taken off the ventilator on Sunday and is able to give one-word responses, his niece said.
Cortes' family have been treating him "gingerly" as per a doctor's suggestion, not yet asking him if he remembers the Aug. 12 assault which left him with a fractured skull.
"We haven't spoken about it to him," Cortes' niece told the Daily News. "The doctor said it's too much information for now for his brain. They're trying to let his brain rest...He seems a little confused. We don't know how his brain is working right now. The doctor said one day he might be okay."
The attack happened outside the Fuego Típico Restaurant at E. 188th Street and the Grand Concourse in Fordham Manor. After Cortes finished his meal inside around 10:45 p.m., he was followed outside by another man, believed to be 55-year-old Bui Van Phu, who put on a pair of gloves, positioned himself behind the victim and slugged him in the face.
Surveillance video from the scene shows Van Phu walking up to Cortes and knocking him to the ground before appearing to shout at several men nearby.
Police do not believe Cortes and Van Phu knew each other and the two had no conversation or altercation before the assault.
Van Phu is a registered Level 3 sex offender and is on lifetime parole for a 1995 Bronx sexual assault.
He allegedly confessed to the crime, telling his parole officer, "I hit someone and he's in the hospital. I don't know if he's dead," according to a complaint obtained by the New York Post.
