Prosecutors Decry Stabbing of Ex-Officer Derek Chauvin While Incarcerated in George Floyd’s Killing

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, is expected to survive serious injury after being stabbed by another inmate at a federal prison in Arizona, the Minnesota attorney general’s office said Saturday while denouncing the attack.

The stabbing took place Friday at the Federal Correctional Institution, Tucson, a medium-security prison that has been plagued by security lapses and staffing shortages. It was confirmed by a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to publicly discuss the attack and spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

“We have heard that he is expected to survive,” Brian Evans, spokesperson for the Minnesota attorney general’s office, told The Associated Press about Chauvin.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons has confirmed an assault at the facility and said employees performed “life-saving measures” before the inmate was taken to a hospital for further treatment and evaluation. The Bureau of Prisons did not name the victim or provide a medical status “for privacy and safety reasons.”

Prosecutors who successfully pursued a second-degree murder conviction against Chauvin at a jury trial in 2021 expressed dismay that he became the target of violence while in federal custody.

“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,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement.

The Bureau of Prisons said no employees at the Tucson facility were injured in the attack and that the FBI was notified. The facility has about 380 inmates.

Terrence Floyd, George Floyd’s brother, told The Associated Press on Saturday that he wouldn’t wish what happened to Chauvin on anyone, and that he felt numb when he initially learned of the news.

“I’m not gonna give my energy towards anything that happens within those four walls — because my energy went towards getting him in those four walls,” Terrence Floyd said. “Whatever happens in those four walls, I don’t really have any feelings about it.”

Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, had advocated for keeping him out of the 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.

Floyd, who was Black, died on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin, who is white, pressed a knee on his neck for 9½ minutes on the street outside a convenience store where Floyd was suspected of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.

An ongoing AP investigation has uncovered deep, previously unreported flaws within the Bureau of Prisons, the Justice Department’s largest law enforcement agency with more than 30,000 employees, 158,000 inmates and an annual budget of about $8 billion.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September, Peters touted steps she’d taken to overhaul problematic prisons and beef up internal affairs investigations. This month, she told a House Judiciary subcommittee that hiring had improved and that new hires were outpacing retirements and other departures.

But Peters has also irritated lawmakers who said she reneged on her promise to be candid and open with them. In September, senators scolded her for forcing them to wait more than a year for answers to written questions and for claiming that she couldn’t answer basic questions about agency operations, like how many correctional officers are on staff.

Associated Press writers Amy Forliti in Minneapolis and Michael Balsamo in New York contributed to this report.

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