Categories: News, Schenectady County

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A dispute Sunday night between two groups of bar patrons led to a melee along Caroline Street that ended in a stabbing, police said.

Cendno Rahaman, 28, of Schenectady, was charged Sunday night with two counts of assault, along with second-degree menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.

According to Saratoga Police Lt. Robert Jillson, the incident was sparked by a dispute between Rahaman and a friend and a group of three others at a bar.

After the dispute, while walking on Caroline Street the two groups met again, near Gaffney’s, police said. Rahaman was then seen by witnesses brandishing a folding knife, police said.

Rahaman threatened a 23-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman with the knife, and the two ran off, police said. Rahaman chased after them, running up Caroline Street toward Broadway, police said.

Eventually, Rahaman caught up with the man and cut him in the head and face “several times,” before a bystander intervened, according to police.

The 22-year-old woman was also cut on her wrist, police said.

Police described the injuries as “non-life threatening,” with the woman being treated at the scene by the Saratoga Springs Fire Department. The man was taken to Albany Medical Center.

Lt. Jillson said Rahaman “instigated” the altercation on Caroline Street, and police were not called to respond to an incident at any particular bar before the stabbing.

“It’s Saratoga in track season in August, so even on a Sunday night, there’s a lot of people out there,” Jillson said of the scene on Caroline Street.

However, Jillson said that the scuffle was limited to a handful of people, while others on Caroline Street helped police as witnesses.

“I wouldn’t say large by any means,” Jillson said of the fight.

Rahaman was arraigned and sent to Saratoga County Jail on $20,000 bond, police said.

Reach Daily Gazette reporter Jake Lahut at 518-322-2358, [email protected] or @JakeLahut on Twitter.