MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota’s attorney general on Saturday denounced a prison attack on Derek Chauvin, saying the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd should be able to serve his sentence without fear of violence.
A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Friday that Chauvin was stabbed by another inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution, Tucson, a medium-security prison that has been plagued by security lapses and staffing shortages. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the attack.
The person said Chauvin was seriously injured in Friday afternoon’s attack.
On Saturday, Brian Evans, a spokesman for the Minnesota attorney general’s office, said: “We have heard that he is expected to survive.”
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The U.S. Bureau of Prisons confirmed an assault at the facility and said employees performed “life-saving measures” before the inmate was taken to a hospital for further treatment and evaluation. The Bureau of Prisons did not name the victim or provide a medical status “for privacy and safety reasons.”
Prosecutors who successfully pursued a second-degree murder conviction against Chauvin at a jury trial in 2021 expressed dismay that he became the target of violence while in federal custody.
“I am sad to hear that Derek Chauvin was the target of violence. 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,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement.
The Bureau of Prisons said no employees at the Tucson facility were injured in the attack and the FBI was notified. The facility has about 380 inmates.
Terrence Floyd, George Floyd’s brother, told AP on Saturday that he wouldn’t wish what happened to Chauvin on anyone, and said 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.”
FILE – In this image taken from video, former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin addresses the court at the Hennepin County Courthouse, June 25, 2021, in Minneapolis. Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, was stabbed by another inmate and seriously injured Friday, Nov. 24, 2023, at a federal prison in Arizona, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Chauvin’s stabbing is the second high-profile attack on a federal prisoner in the past five months. In July, disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar was stabbed by a fellow inmate at a federal penitentiary in Florida.
Chauvin, 47, was sent to FCI Tucson from a maximum-security Minnesota state prison in August 2022 to simultaneously serve a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights and a 22½-year state sentence for second-degree murder.
Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, advocated for keeping him out of the general population and away from other inmates, anticipating he’d be a target. In Minnesota, Chauvin was mainly kept in solitary confinement “largely for his own protection,” Nelson wrote in court papers last year.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Chauvin’s appeal of his murder conviction. Separately, Chauvin is making a long-shot bid to overturn his federal guilty plea, claiming new evidence shows he didn’t cause Floyd’s death.
Floyd, who was Black, died May 25, 2020, after Chauvin, who is white, pressed a knee on his neck for 9½ minutes on the street outside a convenience store where Floyd was suspected of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.
Bystander video captured Floyd’s fading cries of “I can’t breathe.” His death touched off protests worldwide, some of which turned violent, and forced a national reckoning with police brutality and racism.
Three other former officers who were at the scene received lesser state and federal sentences for their roles in Floyd’s death.
The federal Bureau of Prisons faced increased scrutiny in recent years following wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein’s jail suicide in 2019. It’s another example of the agency’s inability to keep even its highest-profile prisoners safe after Nassar’s stabbing and “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski’s suicide at a federal medical center in June.
At the federal prison in Tucson in November 2022, an inmate at the facility’s low-security prison camp pulled out a gun and attempted to shoot a visitor in the head. The weapon, which the inmate shouldn’t have had, misfired and no one was hurt.
An ongoing AP investigation uncovered deep, previously unreported flaws within the Bureau of Prisons, the Justice Department’s largest law enforcement agency with more than 30,000 employees, 158,000 inmates and an annual budget of about $8 billion.
AP reporting revealed rampant sexual abuse and other criminal conduct by staff, dozens of escapes, chronic violence, deaths and severe staffing shortages that hampered responses to emergencies, including inmate assaults and suicides.
Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters was brought in last year to reform the crisis-plagued agency. She vowed to change archaic hiring practices and bring new transparency, while emphasizing that the agency’s mission is “to make good neighbors, not good inmates.”
Photos: Remembering George Floyd
Tributes are displayed on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at George Floyd Square on May 25 in Minneapolis.
A stone for George Floyd is pictured on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at the Say Their Names Cemetery on May 25 in Minneapolis.
People gather along the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum during a Justice for George Floyd protest May 30, 2020, in Philadelphia. The third anniversary of Floyd’s murder is May 25, 2023.
Demonstrators gather outside Cup Foods to celebrate the murder conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd, April 20, 2021, in Minneapolis. The third anniversary of Floyd’s murder is May 25.
Demonstrators rally at Lincoln Memorial on June 4, 2020, in Washington, during a protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes.
In this image from surveillance video, Minneapolis police officers from left, Tou Thao, Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane attempt to take George Floyd into custody in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 25, 2020.
Police use chemical irritants and crowd control munitions to disperse protesters during a demonstration against police violence and racial injustice in Portland, Ore., Sept. 5, 2020, sparked by the killing of George Floyd. The third anniversary of Floyd’s murder is May 25.
President Joe Biden greets Gianna Floyd, the daughter of George Floyd, after he signed an executive order in the East Room of the White House, on May 25, 2022, in Washington.
A guard holds the door as Gianna Floyd, the daughter of George Floyd, walks out of the West Wing of the White House, on May 25, 2021, in Washington.
Protesters kneel in front of New York City Police Department officers before being arrested for violating curfew beside the iconic Plaza Hotel on 59th Street, June 3, 2020, in New York. Protests continued following the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25.
Preschool children visit the site where George Floyd was murdered by then Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, as the kids took a field trip to the memorial, June 24, 2021, in Minneapolis.
A woman leaves roses along a tribute for George Floyd on the three-year anniversary of his death at George Floyd Square on May 25 in Minneapolis.
Tributes are displayed on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at George Floyd Square on May 25 in Minneapolis.
Tributes are displayed on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at George Floyd Square on May 25 in Minneapolis.
A stone for George Floyd is pictured on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at the Say Their Names Cemetery on May 25 in Minneapolis.
People hold signs saying “Say Their Names” and pay tribute to George Floyd and other Black lives lost to police brutality on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at the Say Their Names Cemetery on May 25 in Minneapolis. The murder of Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, and the fervent protests that erupted around the world in response, looked to many observers like the catalyst needed for a nationwide reckoning on racism in policing.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, left, shakes hands with an activist on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at George Floyd Square on May 25 in Minneapolis.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara raises his fist in solidarity on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at George Floyd Square on May 25 in Minneapolis.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara raises his fist in solidarity on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at George Floyd Square on May 25 in Minneapolis. The murder of Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, and the fervent protests that erupted around the world in response, looked to many observers like the catalyst needed for a nationwide reckoning on racism in policing. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)