Two arrested after fight over building site clean-up leads to stabbing – Salisbury Post

SALISBURY — Two men were arrested after deputies said they fought over a mess at a construction site, ending when one of the men stabbed the other with a box cutter.

Officers responded to an industrial property at 2075 Gold Hill Road about 5:30 p.m. Thursday for an ongoing altercation, said Capt. Mark McDaniel, public information officer for the Rowan County Sheriff's Office. When they arrived, they found a man waiting on the property who they believe was one of two men involved in the fight.

Officers spoke with the man, identified as Paul Andrew Lawing, 42, who told them the altercation started because he noticed a mess in the gravel next to a silo and asked whoever made the mess to clean it up in their work group, McDaniel said. Another man, identified as Shawn Maurice France, 52, responded to the group and the two began arguing about the mess.

The two men met near the silo and continued to argue, which allegedly escalated into a physical altercation when one of them pushed the other. The two men gave police different accounts of the altercation, McDaniel said, but one witness said he saw the two men fighting before France grabbed an object, either a traffic cone or a broom handle, and began hitting Lawing with it. Lawing then allegedly pulled out a box cutter and slashed France.

Both men were charged in the fight. Lawing was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon and France was issued a citation for simple assault. Lawing was transported to the Rowan County Detention Center and given a $5,000 bond by Magistrate Duffel.