If you commit an
assault and inflict serious injury or use a deadly weapon, you are guilty of a Class A1 misdemeanor. (A simple assault is a Class 2 misdemeanor.) This crime is found in G.S. 14-33(c)(1) which states that:
Unless the conduct is covered under some other provision of law providing greater punishment, any person who commits any assault, assault and battery, or affray is guilty of a Class A1 misdemeanor if, in the course of the assault, assault and battery, or affray, he or she… [i]nflicts serious injury upon another person or uses a deadly weapon.