Queens man accused of bashing Lana Rosas into coma defends actions: 'It was out of reflex'

The Queens man accused of bashing a woman into a coma over an East Village parking space says he wishes he never raised his fist.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the attack on Lana Rosas, Oscar Fuller said he didn't realize the power of his punch until cops arrested him last Tuesday on felony assault charges.

"I wish I just let her hit me," Fuller told the Daily News on Sunday. "It was out of reflex, just a reaction that went the wrong way," he said of the Feb. 25 beatdown. "I don't believe this is happening."

He said he went to a birthday party following the encounter with Rosas, 25, of the Bronx, insisting he did not know she was critically injured.

"I left the incident so it would not become a bigger situation. I only hit the girl one time," said the father of two as his lawyer, Thomas Kenniff, sat nearby.

Fuller is accused of flying into a rage when Rosas refused to budge from an E. 14th St. parking space between Avenues A and B that she was saving for her boyfriend by standing in it.

Prosecutors charge that Fuller, who stands 5-feet-7 and weighs 150 pounds, hit the 4-foot-11, 100-pound Rosas so hard she "flew off her feet" and hit her head on the ground.

She continues to battle for her life at Bellevue Hospital, where doctors removed part of her skull to relieve brain swelling.

"As a man, as a person who believes in God, I would not want to take a person's life," Fuller said.

"My history speaks of not hitting a woman. Do I feel I was right to do what I did? No!"

Fuller, who works as an electrician, claimed he was acting in self-defense.

He admitted getting out of his car and says that he calmly asked Rosas to step away and let him park his Plymouth Voyager.

"She began hitting me in the face," he said. "It threw me off. It just puzzled me. She hit me like four or five times."

As the parking space standoff turned violent, Rosas' boyfriend, Joseph Oliver, 26, was across the street preparing to make a U-turn. He jumped out of his car and ran toward Fuller.

"I saw a guy running toward me," Fuller said. "I hit the girl, jumped into my car and pulled off."

Pointing to an old knife wound on the left side of his face, Fuller - whose rap sheet includes arrests for assault and drug charges - said his reaction might have something to do with being jumped and cut when he was 15.

"You never know what might happen," he said, blaming his street-survival instincts for provoking his fist.

Fuller said he didn't know he had been injured until he arrived at his friend's birthday party and someone asked why he was bleeding from his forehead.

He was arrested Tuesday after cops traced his license plate number to his Jamaica home. Witnesses subsequently picked him out in a lineup.

His was released Saturday on $100,000 bail.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly declined to comment on whether Fuller is a potential menace to society.

Some politicians have said that there should have been no bail.

Fuller insisted he is not a threat to the community and that he is full of remorse.

"I hope for her recovery to happen soon," he said. "I'm not running. I'm not hiding. I point the finger at myself."