Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, was stabbed by another inmate Friday at a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement to CBS News: "I am sad to hear that Derek Chauvin was the target of violence. He was duly convicted of his crimes and, like any incarcerated individual, he should be able to serve his sentence without fear of retaliation or violence."
The Bureau of Prisons said in a statement that an incarcerated person was "assaulted" at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson at around 12:30 p.m. local time Friday.
In the statement, the agency did not name the inmate assaulted or their condition, but said responding employees contained the incident and performed "life-saving measures" before the inmate was taken to a local hospital "for further treatment and evaluation."
The Federal Correctional Institution is a medium-security prison. No employees were injured and the FBI was notified, the Bureau of Prisons said.
Chauvin, 47, was sent to FCI Tucson from a maximum-security Minnesota state prison in August 2022 to simultaneously serve a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd's civil rights and a 22½-year state sentence for second-degree murder.
Chauvin's stabbing is the second high-profile attack on a federal prisoner in the last five months.
Chauvin's lawyer, Eric Nelson, advocated for keeping him out of general population and away from other inmates, anticipating he'd be a target. In Minnesota, Chauvin was mainly kept in solitary confinement "largely for his own protection," Nelson wrote in court papers last year.
Last week, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Chauvin, leaving in place his conviction. Lawyers for Chauvin had asked the Supreme Court in October to take up his legal battle, which centered around a Minnesota trial court's denial of his requests for a change of venue and to sequester the jury.
Source:
cbsnews.com, Staff, November 25, 2023
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