Paul Andrew Lawing : “Job Site Clean-Up Fight Leads to Stabbing: 2 Arrested”

SALISBURY — Two individuals were taken into custody by authorities after engaging in a physical altercation stemming from a dispute over the cleanliness of a work site, which concluded with one of the men using a box cutter to stab the other.

Law enforcement officers responded to an industrial premises situated at 2075 Gold Hill Road at around 5:30 p.m. on Thursday following reports of an ongoing confrontation, as stated by Captain Mark McDaniel, the public information officer for the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office. Upon their arrival, they encountered a man awaiting them on the premises, who was identified as one of the two individuals involved in the altercation.

The man, identified as 42-year-old Paul Andrew Lawing, informed the deputies that the altercation commenced when he noticed a mess in the gravel adjacent to a silo and requested the individual responsible for the mess to clean it up via their work group communication channel, according to McDaniel. Another individual, identified as Shawn Maurice France, aged 52, responded in the group chat, leading to a heated argument between the two men.

The pair met near the silo and the argument escalated into a physical altercation when one of them pushed the other. McDaniel mentioned that conflicting accounts of the altercation were provided by both men; however, a witness stated that he witnessed the two men fighting before France grabbed an object, potentially a traffic cone or a broomstick, and used it to strike Lawing. Subsequently, Lawing allegedly brandished a box cutter and inflicted a wound on France.

Both individuals faced legal consequences for their involvement in the altercation, with Lawing being arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for assault with a deadly weapon, while France received a citation for misdemeanor simple assault. Lawing was transported to the Rowan County Detention Center and was granted a bail of £5,000 by Magistrate Duffel.