A FEDERAL prisoner has been charged with attempted murder after he stabbed former police officer Derek Chauvin 22 times, prosecutors say.
Chauvin, 47, who was convicted of murdering George Floyd, was seriously injured in the November 24 attack.
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John Turscak, a former gang member and FBI informant, stabbed Chauvin in the law library at the Federal Correctional Institution using an improvised knife, according to federal prosecutors.
The attack was stopped by prison employees and Chauvin was taken to the hospital.
Turscak, 52, who has been serving a 30-year sentence for crimes he committed as a member of the Mexican Mafia gang, told the FBI that he would’ve killed Chauvin if they hadn’t responded as quickly as they did, prosecutors said.
The inmate allegedly confessed to having thought about stabbing Chauvin, a high-profile inmate, for a month.
However, prosecutors said Turscak later denied wanting to kill Chauvin.
Turscak said he chose Black Friday to commit the stabbing intentionally, according to prosecutors.
The date of the attack was meant to be a symbolic connection to the Black Lives Matter movement, prosecutors said, as well as the Mexican Mafia gang due to the Black Hand symbol they’ve been associated with.
In addition to attempted murder, Turscak has been charged with assault with intent to commit murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, and assault resulting in serious bodily injury, according to the US Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona.
The first two listed charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years each, while the latter charges have a 10-year maximum sentence.
He has been moved to an adjacent federal facility and remains in custody.
Chauvin was transferred to the Tucson, Arizona facility in August 2022 from a Minnesota state prison.
He is serving two sentences simultaneously; a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights and a 22½-year state second-degree murder sentence.
Chauvin’s lawyer anticipated that his client would be a target and advocated for keeping him separated from other inmates.
While in the Minnesota prison, Chauvin was kept mostly in solitary confinement “largely for his own protection,” lawyer Eric Nelson wrote last year, per The Associated Press.
Floyd, who is Black, was murdered on May 25, 2020.
He was stopped by cops on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill in a convenience store when Chauvin, a white Minnesota police officer, pinned him to the ground by pressing a knee to his neck for more than nine minutes.
Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck even after Floyd stopped breathing and had no pulse.
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The incident – including Floyd’s cries of “I can’t breathe” – was caught on camera by witnesses.
Floyd’s death was the catalyst for a nationwide reckoning with racism and police brutality.