On November 24, 2023, Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted for the murder of George Floyd, was stabbed 22 times by an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona. The attack, confirmed to have taken place around 12:30 p.m., led to Chauvin being hospitalized, where he is reportedly in stable condition.
Floyd, a Black man, died on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin, who is white, knelt on his neck for over nine minutes. The incident, captured on bystander video showing Floyd’s pleas of “I can’t breathe,” ignited global protests against police brutality and systemic racism.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who headed the prosecution against Chauvin, expressed his sadness over the incident, underscoring the necessity for Chauvin to complete his sentence free from violence or retaliation.
Chauvin, 47, was sentenced in a landmark case for the death of Floyd, receiving a 22 1/2-year term for second-degree murder and a concurrent 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights.
Concerns about Chauvin’s safety have been prevalent since his sentencing. He was initially held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day in Minnesota prisons due to these concerns, before being transferred to federal custody in August 2022. His attorney had previously requested that Chauvin be segregated from the general prison population to prevent incidents like this.
The FBI has been notified and is expected to play a role in investigating the stabbing.
John Turscak, 52, a former gang leader and FBI informant, was charged with the attempted murder of Chauvin. Turscak is serving a 30-year sentence for crimes related to his involvement with the Mexican Mafia.
Prosecutors reported that Turscak, who led a Los Angeles-based faction of the Mexican Mafia in the 1990s, had been contemplating the attack for about a month, driven by Chauvin’s high-profile status as the former officer convicted for Floyd’s murder. Turscak told FBI agents that the assault, which he carried out with an improvised knife in the prison’s law library, was symbolically linked to the Black Lives Matter movement and the “Black Hand” symbol of the Mexican Mafia. However, he later denied intending to kill Chauvin.
Turscak, also known as “Stranger,” became an FBI informant in 1997 but was later dropped due to continued criminal activities. He pleaded guilty in 2001 to racketeering and conspiring to kill a gang rival. His current charges include attempted murder, assault with intent to commit murder, and assault with a dangerous weapon, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He is due to complete his current sentence in 2026.
This episode is the latest in a series of security issues at the Tucson federal prison, coming after an attempted shooting incident in November 2022. The medium-security facility, which houses inmates needing special protection, such as informants and former law enforcement officers, has faced challenges with security and staffing.
The attack on Chauvin has brought the safety of high-profile inmates into question. The motives behind the stabbing and the specifics of Chauvin’s injuries are still unclear. In the wake of the incident, visitation to the facility has been temporarily suspended by the Bureau of Prisons.
