Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, was stabbed this Friday by another inmate and seriously injured on Friday in a federal prison in Arizona, a person close to the matter told The Associated Press.
The attack occurred at the Federal Correctional Institution. Tucson, a medium-security prison that has been plagued by security lapses and staffing shortages. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the details of the attack and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
For its part, the Bureau of Prisons confirmed that an incarcerated person was assaulted at FCI Tucson around 12:30 local time on Friday. In a statement, the agency said responding employees contained the incident and took “life-saving measures” before the inmate, whom it did not name, was taken to a hospital for further treatment and evaluation. No employees were injured and the FBI was notified.
Visits to the center, which has around 380 people deprived of liberty, were suspended. Chauvin’s stabbing is the second “high-profile” attack on a federal prisoner in the last five months. In July, sports doctor Larry Nassar was stabbed by a fellow inmate at a federal penitentiary in Florida. It is also the second major incident at the federal prison in Tucson in just over a year. In November 2022, an inmate at the center’s low-security prison camp pulled out a gun and attempted to shoot a visitor in the head.
Chauvin, 47, was sent to FCI Tucson from a maximum-security Minnesota state prison in August 2022 to simultaneously serve a federal sentence of 22 1/2 years in prison for second-degree murder and another of more than 20 years for violating Floyd’s civil rights by pressing his knee against the African American’s neck for more than nine minutes, suffocating him to death.
