“Life-saving measures” were provided Friday for the victim of a prison attack in Tucson, Arizona, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said.
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin addresses the court as Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill presides over Chauvin’s sentencing on June 25, 2021, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis.
Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of killing George Floyd, was seriously injured in a stabbing at the jail on Friday, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the incident said.
Chauvin was being held at the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson when the incident occurred, the source said.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons would not confirm that the victim of an attack at that facility Friday was Derek Chauvin, but did provide other details in a statement, including that the victim had been hospitalized.
The attack occurred around 12:30 p.m., the Bureau of Prisons said, and “responding employees initiated life-saving measures for one incarcerated individual.”
“Responding personnel isolated and contained the incident and at no time was the public in danger,” the agency said.
The patient’s condition was not immediately known.
The Bureau of Prisons notified the FBI of the attack, although it provided no further details about why it did so.
A Phoenix FBI spokesman said by email Friday evening that the FBI was “aware of an attack” on the Federal Correctional Institute in Tucson. Any further information would have to come from the Bureau of Prisons, the spokesman said.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement that he was “saddened” by the incident.
“I am saddened to hear that Derek Chauvin was the target of violence,” Ellison said. “He was rightly convicted for his crimes and, like any incarcerated individual, he should be able to serve his sentence without fear of retaliation or violence.”
Chauvin, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane – Minneapolis police officers on duty when they confronted Floyd on May 25, 2020, over a complaint about a counterfeit $20 bill accepted at a convenience store – have all been convicted in both fallen. state and federal courts for crimes leading to Floyd’s death.
Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9½ minutes as Floyd said he couldn’t breathe and went limp, is concurrently serving a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights and a 22½-year state sentence for manslaughter.