Nguyen Tri Phuong, police chief of Thanh Khe Dong Ward in Thanh Khe District, denied giving special favor to his nephew and said he would have done the same to protect any citizen under his duty.

The nephew, 22-year-old Nguyen Tran Vinh Khang, got into trouble on Sunday when he violently assaulted a woman at an eatery in the central city.

The two of them had been engaged in an argument over the order of service they received, after Khang complained about not being served first despite having arrived earlier.

The woman, 33-year-old Tran Thi Quynh Nhu, reportedly told Khang he could have her dish if he felt so hungry, sparking a heating exchange between the two.

An earlier report said Nhu had politely given up her dish, but it is now understood that she had made the offer in a mocking manner.

In the heat of the moment, Khang landed repeated kicks on Nhu, leaving her with a bruised eye, broken teeth, and a sinus fracture from which she is still recovering at a local hospital.

An eatery in Da Nang’s Son Tra District where an assault took place on April 8, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Police of An Hai Dong Ward in Son Tra District, where the assault took place, brought Khang in on the same evening for questioning over the attack.

The man was later escorted back to his home in a police car from Thanh Khe Dong Ward, where his uncle is police chief.

According to Tran Thanh Hai, police chief of Thanh Khe District, the use of public vehicles for personal purposes is against the law.

As the incident did not take place in Thanh Khe Dong Ward, the appearance of its police car at another police station is questionable, Hai said, adding that he had demanded a report from the ward’s police chief, Nguyen Tri Phuong, on the issue.

On his part, Phuong said it was his duty to respond to an incident involving one of the ward’s residents, the victim Nhu.

He explained that he had used the police car to escort his nephew home because there was a group of people waiting outside the police station to get revenge on the man.

Phuong said he would have done the same to any other citizen who needed protection.

A police car of Thanh Khe Dong Ward is parked outside the police station of An Hai Dong Ward in Son Tra District, Da Nang City in central Vietnam on the evening of April 8, 2018.

Son Tra District Police are evaluating Nhu’s level of injuries to decide whether to prosecute Khang for his action.

The assailant’s father, Nguyen Huu Chinh, who is a retired military colonel, took to social media on Tuesday to apologize for his son’s violence.

“Attacking people is wrong, especially when it’s a man hitting a woman,” Chinh wrote in a post to a public group about Da Nang.

“I have explained to my son the rights and wrongs of his action, and he is old enough to take full responsibility for what he does.”

Chinh also promised to take his son to visit the victim in the hospital on Tuesday afternoon, but it is not clear whether the visit actually took place.

A screen grab of the Facebook post by Nguyen Huu Chinh, father of the attacker Nguyen Tran Vinh Khang, making an apology for his son's actions.

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