A fellow convict stabbed convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin, who killed George Floyd in 2020, more than 20 times, according to US authorities, who announced attempted murder charges against him.
Turscak informed detectives that he chose the date of his attack — Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving — to highlight the Black Lives Matter movement.
“Turscak told the corrections officers that he would have killed [Chauvin] had they not responded so quickly,” the complaint says.
Turscak was charged with attempted murder, assault with intent to commit murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and assault resulting in significant bodily damage, according to the US District Attorney’s Office in Tucson.
“Turscak stabbed another inmate, DC, who had previously been convicted of federal crimes in another district, approximately 22 times with an improvised knife,” a statement said.
While neither the statement nor the complaint provided Chauvin’s complete name, an official source verified to AFP that he was the former Minneapolis police officer. Attempted murder carries a jail sentence of up to 20 years. There was no more information available about Chauvin’s condition.
Chauvin, whose murder of George Floyd in Minnesota ignited large racial justice rallies in 2020 and launched the Black Lives Matter movement, was attacked last month in an Arizona prison’s law library.
In 2021, Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter and sentenced to 22 and a half years in jail. The incident was captured on camera, presenting a far different version of events than the initial police press statement, which simply stated: “Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress.”
According to the conclusions of a Justice Department investigation against the Minneapolis police, which were announced in June 2023, officers in the department habitually resorted to violent and racial practises, “including unjustified deadly force.”
The city of Minneapolis, in the midwestern state of Minnesota, recently agreed to pay the Floyd family $27 million in a wrongful death lawsuit. Chauvin lost his appeal against his second-degree murder conviction.
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