http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/stabbedmarine.aspOrigins: On 26 November 2010 (Black Friday) at about 1:15 p.m., those manning the surveillance cameras at a Best Buy in Augusta, Georgia, spotted a shopper cutting a Dell laptop computer from its packaging and stuffing it down his pants. According to police, store security personnel approached the suspect, 39-year-old Tracey Attaway of Waynesboro, Georgia, and asked him to return the merchandise. Attaway became angry, released the laptop, and ran out the front door, pulling a knife and knocking down a Best Buy employee in the process.
Outside the store's entrance were four Marines and seven volunteers collecting donations for Toys for Tots. One of them, Cpl. Phillip Duggan, clotheslined the running man, bringing him to the ground. The assailant regained his feet and swung his knife, stabbing Duggan, then was quickly tackled by several other Marines and members of the store's loss-prevention team, who held him in the parking lot until deputies arrived.
The injured Marine was taken to Eisenhower Army Medical Center and released after receiving stitches. He was well enough the next day to drop off a toy for donation at a nearby Walmart.
Cpl. Duggan's attacker, Tracey Attaway, was jailed and charged with armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a knife in the commission of a crime. He was denied bond on 11 December 2010.
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.
Barbara "fable unable" Mikkelson
Last updated: 16 April 2011
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