Inmate accused of stabbing ex-officer Chauvin indicted

A man suspected of stabbing former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin 22 times at a federal prison in Tucson in November was indicted Dec. 13 on several charges including attempted murder.

Federal court documents state John Turscak attacked Chauvin, who is referred to as “D.C.,” with an improvised knife and caused “serious bodily injury” at around 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 24 in the prison’s law library.

Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd after kneeling on his neck for several minutes on May 25, 2020. He was sentenced to 22½ years on June 25, 2021.

Documents state correctional officers immediately responded to the assault and pepper-sprayed Turscak to subdue him, with Turscak saying he would have killed Chauvin had they not arrived sooner.

However, during an interview with FBI agents two days later, documents say Turscak denied wanting to kill Chauvin but had thought about attacking him for a month given his highprofile status.

Documents say Turscak saw an opportunity to attack Chauvin at the law library on Nov. 24, which was also Black Friday, and that attacking on such a day was symbolic of the Black Lives Matter movement and the “Black Hand” symbol associated with the Mexican Mafia. Chauvin had his injuries treated at a hospital.

Turscak was indicted on Dec. 13 on attempted murder, assault with intent to commit murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and assault resulting in serious bodily injury.

According to the Bureau of Prisons website, federal prisons operate under five different security levels. Facilities are designated as either minimum, low, medium, high, or administrative; and facilities with different security levels that are near each other are known as prison complexes.

The Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson is a medium-security prison.

Medium-security prisons FCIs have strengthened perimeters (often double fences with electronic detection systems), mostly cell-type housing, a wide variety of work and treatment programs, higher staff-to-inmate ratio than low-security prisons, and more internal controls.

AP previously reported that one of Chauvin’s attorneys, Eric Nelson, had advocated for keeping him out of the general population.