Surveillance cameras captured the moment a man calmly grabbed a shovel from a store shelf and walked up behind a manager before clocking him in the head with it.
The footage showed Danielson Paiva, 29, entering the Machado Supermarket in Sinope, Brazil on Saturday afternoon and approaching a display area.
Paiva is seen removing one of the shovel and walking over to Claudio dos Santos, 40, who had his back turned and was talking on his cellphone.
Paiva then wound up and violently struck dos Santos in the head, knocking him to the ground.
A worker rushed over to confront Paiva while another ran up and tackled him to the ground.
A dazed dos Santos, who spent several seconds on the ground, was helped up by bystanders and escorted from the scene as the workers restrained Paiva.
The attacker was arrested on a charge of attempted murder and placed on pretrial detention after appearing before a judge on Sunday.
In her ruling, the judge said it was necessary to keep him jailed.
A disgruntled man used a shovel to attack a store manager in Sinope, Brazil on Saturday
The suspect is seen grabbing a shovel prior to attacking the manager. He is being held on an attempted murder charge
According to the Mato Gross Military Police, Paiva confronted dos Santos after his wife, who works at the supermarket, had complained about the manager.
Dos Santos told Brazilian news outlet G1 that he had never any type of communication with Paiva’s wife prior to the attack.
‘I don’t have contact with the employees, but I always hold the leaders accountable,’ dos Santos explained.
‘…I don’t know how she conveyed this information. I think she told her husband that I had morally harassed her, but I didn’t have any contact with this employee.’
Dos Santos was rushed to a hospital following the attack and discharged on Sunday.
He said his injuries could have been much worse had he not been talking on his cellphone.
‘I never expected something like this to happen,’ the manager said.
‘He [Paiva] really wanted to kill me and what saved me was my cellphone, which shattered inside my ear and I had to get stitches.’
The attacker then wound up and violently struck dos Santos in the head, knocking him to the ground
Supermarket workers restrained the suspect after the attack
‘But it was the cellphone that protected me from the blow.’
The supermarket said in a statement that it has opened an investigation into the attack.
‘We reinforce our commitment to the respect, safety and well-being of our employees and customers, values that have always guided our actions,’ it said.