- Chauvin’s attacker, identified as John Turscak, has been charged with attempted murder
- The former cop was stabbed 22 times, and Turscak said he timed it for Black Friday as a symbolic attack for BLM
Derek Chauvin, the ex-police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, was stabbed 22 times with an ‘improvised knife’ in a horror prison stabbing last week, it has been revealed.
The attacker, identified as former FBI informant and gang member John Turscak, 52, has been charged with attempted murder, and told officers he would have killed the disgraced former cop if they had not responded quickly, prosecutors said.
Chauvin was targeted in the law library at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona, last Friday, with Turscak telling FBI agents he had been planning the attack for around a month.
The inmate also said he chose Black Friday as the date of his attack for symbolic connection to the Black Lives Matter movement, which were in-part sparked by Chauvin after he killed Floyd in May 2020.
Turscak was sentenced to 30 years behind bars in November 2001 for a number of crimes while in the Mexican Mafia gang, and was acting as an undercover informant for the FBI at the same time.
Derek Chauvin was stabbed 22 times in a horror prison attack last Friday
![The disgraced former cop was targeted in the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona (pictured) where he was transferred in August 2022](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/01/22/78489707-12816273-image-a-12_1701470954588.jpg)
The disgraced former cop was targeted in the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona (pictured) where he was transferred in August 2022
Turscak, a career criminal who went by the nickname ‘Stranger’, shot to notoriety over two decades ago after providing information that led to the indictments of more than 40 suspected members of the Mexican Mafia while acting as an informant, according to the Los Angeles Times.
While an informant, he was dropped from the investigation and charged after admitting to a slew of crimes including drug dealing, extortion and authorizing assaults.
As well as connecting the stabbing to the BLM movement, Turscak said he chose Black Friday in tribute to the ‘Black Hand’ symbol, which is associated with the Mexican Mafia gang, prosecutors said.
He remains in custody and has no attorney listed in court records, and has previously represented himself in numerous court proceedings.
His guilty plea saw him admit to conspiring to kill a rival in the Mexican Mafia in the late 1990s, who he reportedly battled for control over the cartel’s Los Angeles territory.
In a 2005 court filing reported by the Star Tribune, Turscak requested a transfer from a federal penitentiary in Atlanta because he feared his life was in ‘imminent danger’ from fellow inmates.
He said he felt he was a target ‘as a result of my past cooperation with the government in the Mexican Mafia investigation, and assistance to …authorities here at the prison.’
![George Floyd died on Memorial Day 2020 as he was arrested over allegedly trying to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/01/22/28836864-12816273-George_Floyd_died_on_Memorial_Day_2020_as_he_was_arrested_over_a-a-15_1701471196606.jpg)
![He was seen in a video pleading that he couldn't breathe as officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against his neck](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/01/22/28836866-12816273-He_was_seen_in_a_video_pleading_that_he_couldn_t_breathe_as_offi-a-16_1701471196620.jpg)
The ex-Minneapolis police officer was sentenced to 22- and-a-half-years in prison for the murder of Floyd after pressing his knee against his neck for more than nine minutes
Chauvin is serving 21 years for violating the civil rights of Floyd, and was originally housed in a maximum-security prison in Minnesota before being moved to FCI Tuscon in Arizona in August 2022.
He is also serving a simultaneous 22-and-a-half-year sentence for second degree murder. He was convicted of the May 2022 murder of Floyd after pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes, in horror footage witnessed by millions online.
The former police officer’s lawyer Eric Nelson has previously advocated for keeping his client out of general prison populations due to the high profile nature of his crime.
As an anticipated target, Chauvin was kept mainly in solitary confinement ‘largely for his own protection’, Nelson said last year.
![Chauvin sparked nationwide protests in the summer of 2020 after Floyd's killing](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/01/22/78027739-12816273-The_documentary_says_cops_were_thrown_to_the_wolves_in_2020_when-a-17_1701471200824.jpg)
Chauvin sparked nationwide protests in the summer of 2020 after Floyd’s killing
Chauvin pleaded not guilty in his murder trial, and claimed in his first comments to the media seen last week that his trial was a ‘sham.’
Speaking in documentary The Fall of Minneapolis, a new documentary that examines Floyd’s death, Chauvin said over a prison phone that the death was due to a lengthy wait for an ambulance.
He claimed an ambulance took too long to respond to the incident, taking a ‘not normal’ 20 minutes to arrive.
He also repeatedly referred to the fact that he and other cops had been trained in MRT – Maximal Restraint Technique.
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