Derek Chauvin Was Stabbed 22 Times In Prison: Court Documents

ARIZONA — A federal inmate stabbed former Minneapolis police officer and fellow inmate Derek Chauvin 22 times with an improvised knife in the law library at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona, according to prosecutors.

John Turscak was charged Friday with attempted murder in the Nov. 24 attack, the Associated Press reported.

Turscak, 52, told correctional officers he would've killed Chauvin if they hadn't responded so quickly, according to prosecutors.

No employees were injured and the FBI was notified, the Bureau of Prisons told AP. The facility has about 380 inmates. Visiting was suspended.

Chauvin, 47, was sent to the Tucson prison from a maximum-security Minnesota state prison last year. He's serving a simultaneous 21-year federal sentence for violating George Floyd’s civil rights, and a 22 ½-year state sentence for second-degree murder.

Chauvin’s previous lawyer, Eric Nelson, had advocated for keeping him out of the general population and away from other inmates, anticipating he could be targeted.

Floyd, who was Black, died May 25, 2020, after Chauvin, who is white, pressed a knee on his neck for over 9 minutes on the street outside a convenience store where Floyd was suspected of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.

Bystander video captured Floyd’s fading cries of “I can’t breathe.” His death touched off protests worldwide, some of which turned violent, and forced a national reckoning with police brutality and racism.