Derek Chauvin, the police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, has been stabbed and seriously injured by an inmate in a federal prison, according to a report.
Chauvin was attacked on Friday at the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution, Tucson, in Arizona, a source told The Associated Press.
The Bureau of Prisons told the news organisation that an inmate, who they did not name, was attacked at around 12.30pm with staff performing “life-saving measures.” The inmate was then taken to a hospital for treatment and evaluation.
No employees were injured and the FBI was notified, the Bureau of Prisons said. Visiting at the facility, which has about 380 inmates, has been suspended.
Floyd, who was Black, died on 25 May 2020 after Chauvin, who is white, 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.
Derek Chauvin in court in June 2021— (AP)
A bystander video captured Floyd’s fading cries of “I can’t breathe.” Floyd’s death touched off protests worldwide, some of which turned violent, and forced a national reckoning with police brutality and racism.
Chauvin is serving a 21-year sentence at a federal prison for the killing. He is trying to overturn his federal civil rights conviction in the murder, claiming new evidence shows that he didn’t cause Floyd’s death.
He was convicted of second-degree murder and manslaughter in 2021. He also pleaded guilty to federal charges for violating Floyd’s civil rights and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Former officers J Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane were also found guilty of federal civil rights charges and are each serving two to three-and-a-half years in prison.
Lane also pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to three years in prison. Kueng was sentenced to three and a half years for the same charges.
Former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao has been sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for his role in Floyd’s murder.
Thao was found guilty in May of state charges of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in connection to Floyd’s death in 2020.
The sentence will run concurrently with Thao’s three-and-a-half year prison term on a separate federal civil rights conviction.
Thao held back bystanders while fellow former officer Derek Chauvin pinned down and pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes back on 25 May 2020.
