Two people arrested after stabbing in dispute over construction site cleaning – Salisbury Post

SALISBURY – Two men were arrested after officials said they got into an argument while cleaning up a construction site that ended with one of the men stabbing the other with a box cutter.

Officers responded to an industrial site at 2075 Gold Hill Road around 5:30 p.m. Thursday where there was an ongoing altercation, said Captain Mark McDaniel, public information officer for the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office. When they arrived, a man was waiting at the site who they learned was one of the two men involved in the altercation.

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

The two met near the silo and continued the argument, which allegedly turned into a physical altercation when one shoved the other. Both men told officers different stories about the altercation, McDaniel said, but a witness said he saw the two 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 injured France.

Both men were charged in connection with the brawl. Lawing was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, while France received a charge of simple assault. Lawing was taken to the Rowan County Detention Center and held on $5,000 bail by Judge Duffel.