In federal prison last week, Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer, was stabbed 22 times with an improvised knife by an inmate, as per recently filed criminal charges.
The alleged perpetrator, 52-year-old John Turscak, now faces charges including attempted murder, assault with intent to commit murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, and assault resulting in serious bodily injury, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The stabbing occurred in the law library at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona, where Chauvin is serving his 22-year sentence for the killing of George Floyd in May 2020. Chauvin was seriously injured and hospitalized after the attack, but reports indicate he is in stable condition.
John Turscak, currently serving a 30-year sentence for crimes related to the Mexican Mafia gang, admitted to investigators that he attacked Chauvin on Black Friday, symbolically connecting it to the Black Lives Matter movement and the “Black Hand” symbol associated with the gang.
Despite corrections officers reporting a desire to kill Chauvin, Turscak denied this when questioned by FBI agents.
Chauvin’s attorney, Greg Erickson, expressed disappointment that the family was not promptly notified of the stabbing and criticized the prison for not doing more to prevent it. It remains uncertain if Chauvin will be moved to a different federal prison, and visits at the Tucson prison are currently suspended.
The FBI led the investigation into the stabbing, with the prosecution handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office district of Arizona in Tucson. This incident marks the second high-profile federal prisoner stabbing in recent months, following the attack on Larry Nassar, convicted of molesting members of the U.S. women’s national gymnastics team, in a Florida federal prison in July.
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