Owner of Sask. gas station says he disarmed, restrained one robber before store was rammed by another

The owner of an Esterhazy, Sask., gas station says he wrested a gun away from an armed robber before a second assailant started ramming his business with a truck.   

"I was in danger, my friend and my employees were in danger," said Esterhazy Esso owner Baljinder Sohi, whose gas station was robbed Tuesday night.

"I had to save them and myself, so I thought this is the best way. I don't know [if] it is right or wrong but at that time I had to save ourselves."

It started at around 8 p.m. Tuesday at the business on the east edge of the town, about 180 kilometres east of Regina.

Sohi was sitting at a table with some friends when he saw two people — he believes a man and a woman — enter the gas station wearing masks. 

"I thought they are joking, but then suddenly the lady got the gun out," he said. 

Police said in a news release the pair demanded money.

Sohi said he managed to disarm the woman after he threw a chair at her and she became scared. He said the man ran away, but only briefly.  

"My employees got the door locked but in the meantime he started his truck and smashed in the door and the wall," said Sohi.

The driver of the pickup truck started ramming it repeatedly into the front of the building, he said. 

That was when the woman escaped and got into the truck, which then took off.

Photos posted online show extensive damage to the gas station, with the doors ripped from their hinges and glass scattered around the floor.

RCMP say the duo left in a white Ford F-250 with licence plate 218 ILB, which was stolen from the Whitewood area. 

They're asking anyone with information to call the Esterhazy RCMP at 306-743-5600 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.