An inmate has been charged with attempted murder for stabbing Derek Chauvin, the police officer convicted of killing African-American George Floyd, 22 times, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Serving a 22 and a half year sentence, Chauvin, 47, was attacked on Nov. 24 in the library of a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona, surviving his injuries.
Inmate John Turscak, 52, is accused of stabbing Chauvin with a homemade knife, according to a court document.
“Mr. Turscak told prison officials that he had killed [Chauvin] if they had not reacted so quickly,” the document continues.
The federal prosecutor’s office in Tucson said it had charged Turscak with several crimes, including attempted murder, punishable by 20 years in prison, and assault causing serious bodily injury.
The man is also accused of stabbing another inmate more than 20 times.
Although no press release or complaint indicates Chauvin’s full name, an official source confirmed to France-Presse (AFP) that the victim was indeed the former Minneapolis police officer.
No information was released about Chauvin’s current health status.
The 47-year-old former agent was transferred in August 2022 from a maximum security state prison in Minnesota, in the western United States, to Tucson, to serve a 22 and a half year prison sentence for the murder of George Floyd.
Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, had asked that the former police officer not have contact with the remaining prisoners, warning that he could be the target of retaliation.
In prison in Minnesota, Chauvin was held primarily in solitary confinement “largely for his own protection,” Nelson wrote in court papers last year.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently rejected an appeal filed by Chavín against his murder conviction. The former agent also tries to annul the confession, alleging the existence of new evidence.
George Floyd died on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin used his knee to restrain him, pressing the Black man’s neck to the ground for about nine and a half minutes.
A bystander’s video captured Floyd’s screams as he claimed he couldn’t breathe.
After the images spread on social networks, protests against police violence and racism took place in dozens of North American cities, some of which were the scene of acts of looting.
The four police officers involved in the incident were fired and sentenced to prison terms.
An investigation by the United States Department of Justice, requested after tycoon Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in prison in August 2019, while awaiting trial for sex trafficking, highlighted last June a series of failures in the country’s prison system. .
Source: TSF
