A fellow inmate stabbed disgraced former police officer Derek Chauvin more than 20 times with a shiv, US prosecutors said Friday as they announced charges of attempted murder.
Former Mexican Mafia member John Turscak, 52, stabbed Chauvin inside a Tucson federal prison and said he would’ve killed him if corrections officers had not responded so quickly, prosecutors said.
He purposefully attacked on Black Friday, Nov. 24, as a symbolic connection to the Black Lives Matter movement, according to investigators.
He is now charged with attempted murder, assault with the intent to commit murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, and assault resulting in bodily injury.
Turscak — who is serving a 30-year sentence for crimes committed while working as an FBI informant – said he thought about stabbing the ex-cop convicted of killing black man George Floyd by kneeling on his neck during his arrest for months before the act.
Turscak attacked Chauvin with an “improvised knife” with the “intent to do bodily harm” and to “commit murder,” according to the criminal complaint.
He told investigators he chose Black Friday for his attack because it was “symbolic with the Black Lives Matter movement and the ‘Black Hand’ symbol associated with the Mexican Mafia criminal organization,” according to FBI agents who interviewed him on Nov. 26.
The attack on the disgraced police officer took place around 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 24 inside the facility’s law library. Officers used pepper spray to subdue Turscak.
Chauvin, who is serving a 22-year sentence for Floyd’s death, was taken to a hospital for “emergency medical treatment,” after employees had to perform “life-saving measures” on him.
Turscak waived his Miranda Rights for his interview with the FBI, where he denied he had intended to kill Chauvin.
A lawyer for the criminal was not listed, although he has represented himself on previous occasions.
He has since been moved into an adjacent federal facility, where he remains.
