Walmart security guard in Sherbrooke run over by man frustrated by COVID-19 measures

A security guard at a Walmart in Sherbrooke, Que. is in critical condition after being hit by a driver frustrated by the store's COVID-19 prevention measures.

On Saturday around 5 p.m., a 25-year-old man and his spouse arrived at the store in the Galeries Quatre-Saisons shopping centre, around 160 kilometres southeast of Montreal.

They were told by the security guard that only one person per car could enter. Sherbrooke police said they believe the suspect was frustrated by that and hit the security guard with his vehicle.

"It was a completely gratuitous act, but with extremely serious consequences," police spokesperson Martin Carrier told Radio-Canada. 

The couple fled the scene and they were later found in a home in Sherbrooke. The driver was arrested and questioned.

He is facing charges of armed assault with a vehicle, aggravated assault and committing a hit-and-run, Carrier said.

The victim's family did not wish to speak with the media, but his brother wrote on Facebook that when they arrived to pick him up after work on Saturday, they came across a "crime scene" instead.

"Because someone refused social distancing, he told himself that attempting to keep my brother from his five children and his wife, perhaps forever, would relieve his frustration," the brother wrote of the suspect.