An inmate who allegedly stabbed Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, approximately 22 times in a federal prison in Arizona has been charged with attempted murder, federal prosecutors announced Friday.
John Turscak, 52, allegedly used an improvised knife to stab Chuavin—who prosecutors referred to as “D.C.”—approximately 22 times in the law library at Federal Correctional Institution Tucson last Friday, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also told the Associated Press that Turscak said he would’ve killed Chauvin had correctional officers not responded so promptly.
Turscak also reportedly said he chose to attack Chauvin on Black Friday as a reference to the Black Lives Matter movement as well as the “Black Hand” symbol of the Mexican Mafia gang.
Chauvin was taken to the hospital to receive emergency care and recovered.
In April 2021, Chauvin, a white former police officer, was convicted of third-degree murder, second-degree unintentional murder and second-degree manslaughter after he aggressively knelt on the neck of Floyd, an unarmed Black man who allegedly used a counterfeit $20 bill, in Minneapolis until he suffocated and died. Chauvin received a sentence of 22 years in prison on state charges and 21 years on federal charges, which he is serving simultaneously. The incident, which was caught on video and went viral online, became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement and sparked massive protests for racial justice.
Chauvin is the second high-profile federal inmate to get stabbed recently. At a Florida prison, Larry Nassar, the former sports doctor who sexually abused hundreds of collegiate and Olympic gymnasts, was stabbed by a fellow inmate in July, the AP reported. The federal prison where he was stabbed has had previous issues with violence. In November 2022, an inmate attempted to shoot a visitor using a contraband gun, but he ultimately failed when the gun misfired, the AP reported. No one was hurt.
Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s attorney, had been advocating for Chauvin to be kept out of the prison’s general population, away from other inmates as he believed his client would be a target, the AP reported. Before being transferred to Arizona, Chauvin was at a prison in Minnesota. There, he was often in solitary confinement “largely for his own protection,” according to court papers filed by Nelson.
What We Know About Derek Chauvin’s Stabbing In Federal Prison (Forbes)
