Jesus Cortes, 52, ate dinner at Fuego Tipico Restaurant on 188th Street in Fordham Heights, in the Bronx, without incident (indoors, that is), paid, and left, circa 10:30 p.m on August 12th. Unbeknownst to Cortes, as he got up to leave, a neighboring diner, Bui Van Phu, 55, was seen putting on a pair of gloves, and interrupted his dinner to leave. In front of the restaurant, on clear video and in front of many witnesses, Phu snuck up behind the oblivious Cortes, and sucker punched him in the back or side of the head. Phu then went back inside and finished his meal.
Cortes fell to the ground, and lay there, unconscious. Phu left Cortes with a fractured skull, concussion, and bleeding on the brain; Cortes has been in the ICU in a medically induced coma ever since. There is no guarantee he’ll ever wake up.