An account of this incident circulated via e-mail in December 2010 (reproduced as the first item in the Examples section above) was presented as a 27 November Associated Press account of the incident. While the circulated account was indeed based on that very news article, it contained a paragraph not found in the original:
The suspect was transported to the local hospital with two broken arms, a broken leg, possible broken ribs, assorted lacerations and bruises he obtained when he fell trying to run after stabbing the Marine.
(The audience is supposed to read between the lines in the preceding text and conclude that the suspect did not fall but rather was beaten by the other three Marines.)
None of the news accounts we examined indicated that Attaway was injured, either while being subdued or afterwards. That bit appears to be pure invention on the part of the person who inserted the additional paragraph into the news account, thereby transforming it into a "Don't mess with the Marines" object lesson.