Derek Chauvin was stabbed 22 times during prison attack

Derek Chauvin, the former police officer convicted of the murder of George Floyd, was stabbed in late November by another inmate at a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona. Just a few days later, the attacker revealed that he stabbed Chauvin 22 times during the attack.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office identified the other inmate as John Turscak, a 52-year-old man, who admitted that he would have killed the former police officer if prison officers had not intervened. He faces charges of attempted murder, assault with intent to commit murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and assault resulting in serious bodily injury.

The incident reportedly occurred in the law library at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, where Chauvin is serving a 22-year sentence. Turscak used a kind of improvised knife to attack him and later sent him to an area hospital, where doctors managed to stabilize him.

According to what was reported by the Associated Press, Turscak confessed to investigators that he attacked the former police officer during Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, as a symbolic connection to the Black Lives Matter movement and a symbol of "Black Hand."

Greg Erickson, Chauvin's lawyer, initially warned that his client would be a target inside the prison, which is why he had proposed keeping him away from the other inmates.

The lawyer also regretted the actions of the penitentiary institution, alleging that they did not initially notify his client's family about what happened.

"How the family members who are in charge of Derek's decisions regarding his personal medical care and his emergency contact were not informed after his stabbing further indicates the institution's poor procedures and lack of institutional control," Erickson stated, according to AP.

Chauvin's lawyer also reported that those close to the former officer tried to contact prison authorities numerous times, all without success. In addition, he explained that the information published by the media leads them to assume that he is stable.

The attacker is a former FBI informant

As reported by the LA Times, Turscak became an FBI informant in 1997, later assisting the agency with an investigation that resulted in the indictment of more than 40 members and associates of the Mexican mafia.

However, his career with the FBI ended prematurely when he admitted to trafficking drugs, authorizing assaults and extorting money from people on the job, i.e., while receiving financial compensation as an informant.

He was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2001 after pleading guilty to extortion and conspiracy to kill a prison gang rival. "I didn't commit those crimes for kicks. I did them because I had to if I wanted to stay alive. I told that to the [FBI] agents and they just said, 'Do what you have to do", Turscak said before U.S. District Court Judge A. Howard Matz.