A 26-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of committing a hate crime after Orange police say he punched an elderly Korean American couple over the weekend and harassed an Olympic athlete who is Japanese American in the same park earlier this month.

Just before 7:40 p.m. Sunday, April 18, the couple was walking at Grijalva Park, off of Prospect and Spring streets, when a man came up to them and punched each in the face, knocking them down.

Police said Michael Orlando Vivona was unprovoked and didn’t speak during the attack on the 80-year-old woman and the 79-year-old man.

Paramedics treated the victims at the Orange park, and they said they could just walk back home on their own, Sgt. Phil McMullin said. Police offered them a ride home, but they declined the offer.

Vivona was quickly taken into custody on suspicion of elder abuse and a hate crime.

“People at the park surrounded him and held him until officers got there,” McMullin said. “People knew about the incident from before.”

That incident occurred on April 1 when Sakura Kokumai, a karate champion set to represent the United States in the Olympic Games this summer, was working out at Grijalva.

A man, since identified by police as Vivona, aggressively yelled at her. Kokumai took out her cell phone to record the rant and later shared it to her Instagram page – where it drew the ire of many, especially in a time when it appears the number of attacks against the Asian community has increased.

In the video, the man can be heard yelling the word “Chinese” and saying, “You’re a loser. Go home, you stupid (expletive). …  I’ll (expletive) you up.”

Hawaiian-born Kokumai is Japanese American. She is a highly decorated athlete and been named to the U.S. team for the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer.

Though Kokumai did not initially file a police report, she did later, McMullin said.

Police believe both incidents were hate crimes, the sergeant said. The District Attorney’s Office will determine whether to file charges.

“(Vivona) made statements to indicate that the attacks were racially motivated,” McMullin said. “He’s got some sort of fixation on the Asian community.”

Vivona was wearing the same clothes in both incidents, police said, adding that he appears to be a transient living out of his car; his last recorded home city is Corona. He was not known to police in Orange, McMullin said.

The suspect was being held in lieu of $65,000 bail, jail records show.

Experts and activists have said anti-Chinese rhetoric rising from the COVID-19 pandemic plays a large part in the apparent uptick of attacks on the Asian community. Former President Donald Trump called the coronavirus “the Chinese virus.”

Last month, the Orange County Board of Supervisors passed resolutions condemning anti-Asian racism.

More than just the man bothered Kokumai.

“Yes, what happened was horrible, but I don’t know which was worse, a stranger yelling and threatening to hurt me for no reason or people around me who witnessed everything and not doing a thing,” she said in her post.

Sunday evening, that wasn’t the case, as witnesses who police say were familiar with that incident stepped up to help.