Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of George Floyd’s murder, was reportedly stabbed and injured Friday at a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona, where Chauvin is currently serving a 21-year sentence for his role in Floyd’s May 2020 death.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed an unnamed inmate was stabbed at approximately 12:30 p.m. Friday, with sources telling the Associated Press and the New York Times that the victim in the assault was Chauvin.
Following the incident, “responding employees initiated life-saving measures for one incarcerated individual,” the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement. The inmate was then taken to a hospital for further treatment and evaluation, and is currently in stable condition, CNN added.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office prosecuted Chauvin in the Floyd case, also confirmed that Chauvin was stabbed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson.
“I am sad to hear that Derek Chauvin was the target of violence,” Ellison said in a statement. “He was duly convicted of his crimes and, like any incarcerated individual, he should be able to serve his sentence without fear of retaliation or violence.”
No other details regarding the incident or what preceded it were revealed.
Following his conviction on second-degree murder charges in April 2021 — for which he was sentenced to 22-and-half years behind bars — Chauvin was transferred from a Minnesota prison to the federal facility in Arizona to concurrently serve a 21-year sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights.
At Chauvin’s initial trial, jurors sided with the prosecution’s argument that Floyd had died as a direct result of Chauvin’s actions: pressing his weight onto Floyd’s neck and back while holding him face-down on the pavement deprived Floyd of oxygen, which caused brain injury and cardiac arrest that caused his heart to stop.
In December 2021, Chauvin pleaded guilty to federal civil rights violations in order to avoid a stiffer prison sentence had the charges gone to trial. As part of the plea deal, Chauvin’s sentence would run concurrently as the Minnesota state charges, but he would serve his time in a federal penitentiary — and in general population — as opposed to the state prison, where he was kept isolated from other inmates.
The assault on Chauvin came just days after the Supreme Court rejected the former police officer’s attempts to appeal his second-degree murder conviction. Despite previously pleading guilty, Chauvin is also appealing his conviction on the civil rights violations.