California police say they are uncertain whether the recent assault of an elderly Korean American man in Rialto near Los Angeles was a hate crime. 

The South Korean Consulate-General in L.A. said in a tweet on Wednesday that police are investing the case and that they say nothing is certain, including whether it was a hate crime. 

The victim's granddaughter tweeted on Monday that her grandfather living in L.A. was seriously injured by passengers while riding a bus.

Posting a photo of a man who had been badly beaten, the woman wrote that her grandfather was beaten because he is Korean and people didn't want "the Chinese virus."

The woman, however, deleted the post and the photo the next day, saying the incident should not instigate conflict between the black and Korean communities.

Rialto police also said that the man wasn't beaten on the bus, but that the assailant pushed him from the back while waiting for the bus.