Categories: News, Schenectady County

ROTTERDAM — When two masked men entered Markanda Grocery on Monday and demanded money from his wife, owner Gurchran Singh responded with a baseball bat he keeps behind the counter for protection.

“He say, ‘Give me money! Give me money! Give me money!”‘ Singh recounted to The Daily Gazette on Tuesday, a day after police arrested two men in connection with the incident. “I say, ‘I give you money, don’t worry.'”

Singh then grabbed the bat and hit one suspect in the shoulder as the masked man went behind the counter to grab cigarettes, Singh said.



Gurchran Singh, owner of Markanda Grocery, on Tuesday shows the bat he used to attack two would-be store robbers a day earlier. (Steven Cook)

The store owner’s response wasn’t without risk: The suspects said they had a gun and displayed a knife.





Still, both men quickly fled, taking with them a total of four packs of cigarettes from behind the counter, police said. Singh and his wife, who served as the clerk, were uninjured.

Singh said he believes the men didn’t expect him to be there. His wife recalled they came in an hour before the robbery, when Singh wasn’t there, and she now believes that was to survey the store.

“It’s a full-size bat,” Singh said, showing the well-used aluminum model that can now count a robber among the many things it has hit. “That’s the bat.”

Police responded to the store at 2041 Hamburg St. and soon arrested Ryan M. Kelly Jr., 21, of 205 Scotch Ridge Road, and Brandon L. Ehlers, 20, of 1034 Theodore Road, both of Rotterdam.



Brandon Ehlers (left) and Ryan Kelly.

Surveillance video provided by Singh showed the scene. The two masked men are seen entering the store. The suspect in the light-colored mask has the knife in his right hand and stays on the customer side. He follows Singh’s wife Parvinder Chahal, who remains on the clerk side.

The second suspect, in a dark mask, follows behind the first, but he goes behind the counter and appears to grab the cigarettes as Singh goes for the hidden bat. Singh then swings down at the man in the black mask. Both suspects turn to flee.

Singh, however, isn’t done. An outside camera captures the two suspects as they run out of the door and across the parking lot as Singh continues the chase.

One of the men was taken into custody a few blocks from the store, according to the police report. A perimeter was established after several witnesses said they saw the other man running through yards, police said.

A Schenectady Police Department K-9 flushed the second man out of a wooded area where he was hiding, and he was then arrested by Rotterdam police, according to the police report. Schenectady County sheriff’s deputies also assisted in the search, police said.

In addition to first-degree robbery, a felony, both men also face misdemeanor charges of petit larceny and second-degree menacing, according to the police report.

If convicted of the first-degree robbery count, the men face a possible maximum of 25 years in state prison.

The men were arraigned and ordered held on $15,000 bail. They were being held Tuesday evening at the Schenectady County jail.

Singh’s family has operated the small market on Hamburg Street for about 14 years. Singh described himself and his family as people who work for their pennies. When someone needs help, he said, he helps.

But, he said, he doesn’t give pennies to somebody who comes to steal.