Prosecutors confirmed that the prisoner who stabbed former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin 22 times has been charged with attempted murder. The nation protested after the ex-cop targeted in the attack was found guilty of killing George Floyd while on duty.
The US Attorney’s Office in Arizona announced on Friday that John Turscak, 52, had been charged with many offences in connection with the attack on Chauvin last week. These offences include “attempted murder, assault with intent to commit murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, and assault resulting in serious bodily injury.”
Using Chauvin’s initials, the office noted in a release, “Turscak stabbed another inmate, D.C., who had previously been convicted of federal crimes in another district, approximately 22 times with an improvised knife while incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution Tucson.”
Federal investigators claim that although Chauvin needed hospital treatment for his wounds, he lived. Days following the incident, he was said to be in “stable condition.”
Turscak, who was incarcerated for crimes as a member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang and was serving a 30-year term for them, eventually admitted to authorities that he had been considering hitting Chauvin for weeks. The prosecution claims that he told correctional authorities right away following the stabbing that he would have killed the former police officer if the assault had not been stopped.
According to the criminal complaint, the prisoner claimed that he planned the attack on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, as a tribute to the “Black Hand” symbol linked to the Mexican Mafia and as a “symbolic with the Black Lives Matter movement” that led demonstrations following Floyd’s death in 2020.
Turscak now faces sentences of up to 20 years in prison for two of the new charges against him, and 10 years for the remaining charges. According to the Associated Press, he had previously worked for the FBI and supported the agency’s investigation against the Mexican Mafia in the 1990s, which led to more than 40 arrests. Later, when federal officials discovered Turscak was still selling drugs and committing other crimes while incarcerated, they cut off relations. The prisoner was then charged with planning to assassinate members of competing gangs.
For killing Floyd and violating his civil rights, Chauvin was given a 22.5-year prison sentence in June 2021. According to the prosecution, the officer killed Floyd by knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. Hundreds of US locations saw rioting and protests as footage from the incident went viral, including Minneapolis, Minnesota, the scene of Floyd’s death.
Despite the fact that the US Supreme Court recently rejected his appeal of his murder conviction, the former cop has attempted to reverse the decisions made against him. The defence team for Chauvin is arguing in an ongoing appeal that fresh evidence disproves their theory that he killed Floyd.
