MINNEAPOLIS (AP/COURT TV) — Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, was stabbed by another inmate and seriously injured Friday at a federal prison in Arizona, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, serving time for the 2020 murder of George Floyd, appears via Zoom from a federal prison in Tucson, Ariz., on Friday, March 17, 2023. Chauvin pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting, failing to file tax returns to the state of Minnesota for the years 2016 and 2017. (Minnesota Judicial Branch via AP)
The attack happened at the Federal Correctional Institution, Tucson, a medium-security prison that security lapses and staffing shortages have plagued. The person was not authorized to discuss details of the attack publicly and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.
The Bureau of Prisons confirmed that an incarcerated person was assaulted at FCI Tucson at around 12:30 p.m. local time Friday. In a statement, the agency said responding employees contained the incident and performed “life-saving measures” before the inmate, who it did not name, was taken to a hospital for further treatment and evaluation.
No employees were injured and the FBI was notified, the Bureau of Prisons said. Visiting the facility, which has about 380 inmates, has been suspended.
An attorney for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, said Saturday that Chauvin’s family has been kept in the dark by federal prison officials.
The lawyer, Gregory M. Erickson, slammed the lack of transparency by the Federal Bureau of Prisons a day after his client was stabbed on Friday by another inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona, a prison that has been plagued by security lapses and staffing shortages.
A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Friday that Chauvin was seriously injured in the stabbing. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the attack. On Saturday, Brian Evans, a spokesperson for the Minnesota attorney general’s office, said: “We have heard that he is expected to survive.”
FILE – A person reacts near Cup Foods in Minneapolis after a guilty verdict was announced at the trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021. A Texas board on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, declined a request that Floyd be granted a posthumous pardon for a 2004 drug arrest made by a now-indicted ex-Houston police officer whose case history is under scrutiny following a deadly drug raid. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
Erickson said Chauvin’s family and his attorneys have hit a wall trying to obtain information about the attack from Bureau of Prisons officials. He said Chauvin’s family has been forced to assume he is in stable condition, based only on news accounts, and has been contacting the prison repeatedly seeking updates but have been provided with no information.
Court TV’s Trial Archives: MN v. DEREK CHAUVIN (2021)
Floyd, who was Black, died on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin, who is white, pressed a knee on his neck for 9 1/2 minutes on the street outside a convenience store where Floyd tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. A bystander video captured Floyd’s fading cries of “I can’t breathe.” Floyd’s death touched off protests worldwide, some of which turned violent, and forced a national reckoning with police brutality and racism that is still playing out.
The Supreme Court rejected former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin ‘s appeal of his conviction for second-degree murder in the killing of George Floyd earlier this month.
The justices did not comment on leaving in place state court rulings affirming Chauvin’s conviction and 22 1/2-year sentence.
