By The opinion
01 Dec 2023, 22:21 PM EST
The inmate who stabbed former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in a federal prison last week did so 22 times, with a makeshift knife, according to newly filed criminal charges.
The inmate also admitted to prison officers that he would have killed Chauvin, the former police officer convicted of murdering African-American George Floyd in 2020, if they had not responded as quickly as they did.
John Turscak, 52, faces four federal charges, including attempted murder, in connection with the attack on Chauvin that occurred on November 24 at the federal prison in Tucson, a border city in Arizona.
According to CNN, the former police officer is stable recovering from the attack.
In a statement that did not mention Chauvin by name, the Department of Justice said this Friday that Turscak stabbed another inmate approximately 22 times with a makeshift knife.
Turscak, a former member of the Mexican Mafia serving a 30-year sentence, had contemplated attacking Chauvin for about a month, the indictment details.
Chauvin was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison for the murder of George Floyd that occurred in May 2020, in which the then-Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on the neck of the victim, who was handcuffed and asking for help, for more than nine minutes.
The murder of Floyd, recorded on video, triggered a huge wave of protests in several cities in the United States against racism and police violence that lasted for months.
Keep reading:
– Derek Chauvin: the former officer convicted of the murder of George Floyd was stabbed in prison
– Supreme Court rejected Derek Chauvin’s appeal for the murder of George Floyd
– Derek Chauvin pleads guilty to violating George Floyd’s civil rights