Police officer Derek Chauvin, convicted of the 2020 murder of African-American George Floyd, was stabbed in prison this Friday, according to The New York Times, citing two anonymous sources.
Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes on a Minneapolis street despite his pleas before he died.
The case sparked massive protests for social justice that year, in which Floyd’s cries of “I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry for demonstrators who took to the streets.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has confirmed an attack to AFP, without revealing the name of the injured person. “An incarcerated person has been assaulted at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Tucson,” in the state of Arizona, he said in a statement.
“Responding employees initiated life-saving measures for an incarcerated individual,” who was sent to “a local hospital for further treatment and evaluation,” the bulletin explained. Chauvin survived the attack, according to a New York Times source.
The police officer was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in 2021, and sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison.
Floyd’s death, which was captured on video, also helped fuel an important discussion about racism and policing in the United States and around the world.
A subsequent Justice Department investigation into the Minneapolis Police, whose findings were released in June 2023, stated that its officers routinely resorted to violent and racist practices, “including unjustified deadly force.”
Minneapolis, in the Midwestern state of Minnesota, also settled a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Floyd family and agreed to pay $27 million.
Chauvin appealed his second-degree murder conviction, but his appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court earlier this month.
“At the end of the day, the entire trial, including the sentencing, was a farce,” he declared from prison in a recent documentary.
But at his sentencing hearing he said little, “due to some additional legal matters at hand.” “I want to extend my condolences to the Floyd family,” she added.
He otherwise remained expressionless, as he did during the trial, even when witnesses offered testimony against him.
Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, had said his client “exuded a calm and professional demeanor” in his interactions with Floyd, and tried to convince the jury that the former police officer applied an authorized restraint consistent with his training.
But prosecutors successfully argued that Chauvin had used excessive force, not just on Floyd, but on others he detained during his 19-year career.
Before the trial, prosecutors found several examples of his “modus operandi,” including the case of Zoya Code, a young black woman detained by Chauvin in 2017.
“Although the woman was not physically resisting in any way, Chauvin knelt over her body, using the weight of his body to pin her to the ground,” prosecutors said.
After the killing, colleagues described Chauvin as a quiet, rigid workaholic who often patrolled the city’s toughest neighborhoods.
His commitment to service earned him four medals throughout his career. But he also accumulated 22 complaints and internal investigations, according to a public record purged of all details.