A man arrested in April in an incident targeting Sakura Kokumai, a member of Team USA’s karate team at the Tokyo Olympics, now faces another hate crime charge.
KTLA reports Michael Orlando Vivona, 26, is suspected of yelling threats and spitting at Kokumai. He already faces multiple hate crime charges in a separate attack on an elderly couple at the same park, Grijalva Park in Orange, California.
“There was no racial slurs at the beginning,” Kokumai said back in April. “As he got into his car he would yell out ‘Chinese’ and ‘Sashimi’ and then I was like OK there it is.”
Kokumai told KTLA she frequently worked out at the park in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics.
She said she pulled out her phone and began recording when Vivona began acting belligerently toward her.
According to Fox 11, Vivona is also accused of walking up to a Korean American couple and punching them for no apparent reason.
The couple often comes to the park to take their daily walk. Police say others there at the time came to help the 79-year-old man and his 80-year old wife.
`They recognized him from the previous attack on Sakura Kokumai and surrounded him, Sgt. Phil McMullin of the Orange Police Department said. “There was an officer right there across the street and we arrested him.”
Vivona had been living out of his car.
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