Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was stabbed 22 times in a Tucson, Ariz., prison Nov. 24, according to federal charges filed Friday.
John Turscak, 52, faces charges of attempted murder, assault with intent to commit murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, and assault resulting in serious bodily injury.
The complaint states Chauvin was in the federal prison’s law library around 12:30 p.m. local time when another inmate, Turscak, attacked Chauvin with an improvised knife, stabbing him 22 times. The attack took place at the Federal Correctional Institution-Tucson, where Chauvin is serving concurrently his 22½-year state murder sentence and 21-year federal sentence on civil rights charges in connection to the death of George Floyd.
Corrections officers immediately responded to the assault and deployed pepper-spray to subdue Turscak, who told the responding officers that he would have killed Chauvin if they hadn’t responded so quickly.
He then denied wanting to kill Chauvin in an interview with FBI agents but did admit that he had been thinking about assaulting Chauvin for a month because he is a “high-profile inmate,” the charges say.
Turscak also said his Black Friday attack on Chauvin was “symbolic with the Black Lives Matter movement and the ‘Black Hand’ symbol associated with the Mexican Mafia criminal organization.”
According to media reports, Turscak was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2001 and is a former Mexican Mafia gang member who worked as an FBI informant, which was confirmed by the Associated Press.
Derek Chauvin was stabbed by a former FBI informant and Mexican Mafia member. pic.twitter.com/7Ykb0wXS9t
— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) December 1, 2023
“After getting a call from Derek and hearing how it happened and how there was no one around and that Derek tried to fight him off, but at every turn he would get stabbed again and what this guy did, I’m wondering how something like this could even happen. Where were the guards?” Chauvin’s mother, Carolyn Pawlenty, told Alpha News Friday.
“I’m in a state of shock that it happened. How safe is he now? Where are they going to put him where he is ever going to be safe again? I will not ever give up on getting the truth out. I am outraged, angry and shocked,” she said. “Thank God he’s alive.”
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
