(This story has been updated to reflect that Paul Lawing had his charges dismissed without leave by the district attorney.)

SALISBURY — Two men were arrested after deputies said that they got into a fight over cleaning up a mess on a job site, ending when one of the men stabbed the other with a box cutter.

Deputies responded at approximately 5:30 p.m. on Thursday to an industrial site located at 2075 Gold Hill Road in reference to an ongoing altercation, said Captain 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 reportedly learned had been one of the two men involved in the fight.

Deputies spoke with the man, identified as 42-year-old Paul Andrew Lawing, who told them the altercation had begun 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 text, said McDaniel. Another man, identified as Shawn Maurice France, 52, replied in the group and the two began arguing over the mess.

The two met near the silo and continued the argument, which allegedly evolved into a physical altercation when one pushed the other. Both men told the deputies different stories about the altercation, said McDaniel, but a witness said that he saw the two fight before France grabbed an item, either a traffic cone or broomstick, and began hitting Lawing with it. Lawing then allegedly pulled out a box cutter and slashed France.

Both men were originally charged for the fight, and France received a citation for misdemeanor simple assault. Lawing was originally charged with misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon, but had his charges dismissed without leave by the district attorney. Dismissal without leave means that the charges cannot be brought again in the future.