Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is expected to survive a stabbing attack he suffered while serving time for the 2020 killing of George Floyd.
Chauvin was attacked on Friday at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona, a medium-security prison that has been plagued by security lapses and staffing shortages, The Associated Press first reported.
A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office told Reuters over the weekend that the convicted former law enforcement officer is expected to survive the injuries he sustained, but declined to elaborate on Chauvin’s condition.
An earlier press release by the correctional facility stated that guards had initiated life-saving measures upon finding the victim at around 12.30pm on Friday and that the inmate was later transported to a hospital.
Prosecutors who successfully pursued a second-degree murder conviction against Chauvin at a jury trial in 2021 condemned the attack.
“I am sad to hear that Derek Chauvin was the target of violence,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement on Saturday.
Chauvin’s mother Carolyn Pawlenty told news agency AlphaNews that she had learned about her son’s stabbing on the news.
“I can’t even think what to say. I haven’t been to bed and made a path in my kitchen and living room floor by pacing. I am worried and scared,” Ms Pawlenty told the agency. “How the hell do these news agencies know and his own mother doesn’t even know? And that [prison] has an emergency contact number [for me].”
Floyd, who was Black, died on 25 May 2020 after Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes on the street outside a convenience store where Floyd allegedly tried to use a counterfeit $20 bill. Floyd’s brother, Terrence Floyd, 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.”
The stabbing came just days after Chauvin spoke out in his first prison interview as part of the recently released documentary The Fall of Minneapolis.
“At the end of the day, the whole trial, including sentencing, was a sham,” Chauvin said.
No employees were injured during the stabbing on 24 November and the FBI was notified, the Bureau of Prisons said.
Visiting at the facility, which has about 380 inmates, has been suspended in the aftermath of the stabbing.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
