Ex-Officer Derek Chauvin, Convicted In The 2020 George Floyd Killing, Was Stabbed In Prison

According to a person familiar with the situation, another prisoner stabbed Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer found guilty of murdering George Floyd, on Friday at a federal prison in Arizona.

The incident took place at the Federal Correctional Institution, Tucson, a medium-security prison with numerous security flaws and staffing shortages. The individual was not authorized to disclose the details of the attack publicly and talked to the AP on the condition of anonymity.

The Bureau of Prisons verified Friday that an inmate was assaulted at FCI Tucson at approximately 12:30 p.m. local time. The department said in a statement that responding workers confined the event and administered “life-saving measures” before transporting the inmate, who was not identified, to a hospital for additional care and evaluation.

According to the Bureau of Prisons, no personnel were wounded, and the FBI was alerted. Visitation at the prison, which houses approximately 380 convicts, has been suspended.

Messages were left with Chauvin’s lawyers and the FBI seeking comment.

The stabbing of Chauvin is the second high-profile attack on a federal prisoner in the previous five months. Larry Nassar, a notorious sports doctor, was stabbed by a fellow inmate in a federal prison in Florida in July.

It is also the second significant event at the Tucson federal prison in less than a year. An inmate at the facility’s low-security prison camp pulled out a gun and attempted to kill a visitor in the head in November 2022. The weapon, which the inmate should not have had, malfunctioned, but no one was injured.

Chauvin, 47, was transferred from a maximum-security Minnesota state prison to FCI Tucson in August 2022 to serve a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights as well as a 2212-year state term for second-degree murder.

Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s lawyer, had fought to keep him out of the general population and away from other offenders, anticipating that he would be a target. Chauvin was placed in solitary confinement in Minnesota “largely for his own protection,” Nelson stated in court papers last year.

Chauvin’s appeal of his murder conviction was denied by the United States Supreme Court last week. Separately, Chauvin is attempting to have his federal guilty plea overturned, saying that fresh evidence reveals he did not cause Floyd’s death.

Ex-Officer Derek Chauvin, Convicted In George Floyd’s Killing, Was Stabbed In Prison

Floyd, a Black man, died on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin, a white man, placed a knee on his neck for 912 minutes on the street outside a convenience shop where Floyd was suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill.

A bystander video captured Floyd’s dying sobs of “I can’t breathe.” His death sparked worldwide protests, some of which became violent and compelled a national confrontation with police brutality and racism.

Three other former policemen who were present at the time of Floyd’s death received shorter state and federal penalties for their roles in his death.

Chauvin’s stabbing comes as the federal Bureau of Prisons has come under heightened criticism in recent years following the suicide of wealthy billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in a federal prison in 2019. After Nassar’s stabbing and “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski’s death at a federal medical center in June, it’s just another example of the agency’s inability to keep even its most high-profile offenders safe.

An ongoing AP investigation has revealed significant, previously unreported vulnerabilities within the Bureau of Prisons, the Justice Department’s largest law enforcement agency, with over 30,000 personnel, 158,000 inmates, and an annual budget of approximately $8 billion.

Ex-Officer Derek Chauvin, Convicted In George Floyd’s Killing, Was Stabbed In Prison

AP research has exposed extensive sexual abuse and other criminal behavior by staff, as well as dozens of escapes, chronic violence, deaths, and significant staffing shortages that have hampered responsiveness to emergencies such as inmate assaults and suicides.

Colette Peters, Director of the Bureau of Prisons, was appointed last year to overhaul the crisis-plagued organization. She promised to modernize employment methods and increase transparency while underlining that the agency aims “to make good neighbors, not good inmates.”

In September, Peters testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, touting her actions to improve troubled jails and beef up internal affairs investigations. She told a House Judiciary subcommittee earlier this month that recruiting had increased and new hires were outnumbering retirements and other exits.

However, Peters has infuriated MPs who claim she broke her vow to be truthful and upfront with them. Senators chastised her in September for making them wait more than a year for written answers and stating she couldn’t answer basic questions regarding agency operations, such as how many correctional officers are on duty.

source – (AP)