Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted in the 2020 killing of George Floyd, was assaulted Friday in a federal prison in Arizona, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Chauvin is in stable condition after the assault at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, the source said.

When asked about the report of Chauvin being harmed, FBI offices in Phoenix and Minneapolis said they were aware of an assault that happened at the federal prison on Friday, but did not identify a person and referred reporters to the Bureau of Prisons for more information.

Chauvin’s attorney Greg Erickson told reporters he was working on getting confirmation.

“An incarcerated individual” was assaulted at the Tucson prison at approximately 12:30 p.m., the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement Friday. Two sources confirmed to reporters the individual was Chauvin.
 

“Responding employees initiated life-saving measures for one incarcerated individual,” and that person was transferred to a hospital for treatment, the bureau’s statement said. No employees were injured during the incident, bureau added.

Chauvin was assaulted at the medium-security prison while serving two concurrent sentences in Floyd’s murder.

In April 2021, Chauvin was convicted on state charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison. Months later, Chauvin pleaded guilty to federal charges of depriving Floyd of his civil rights and was sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Chauvin, who is White, had knelt on Floyd’s neck and back for more than 9 minutes on May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis. Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was handcuffed and lying face down on a street as he pleaded he couldn’t breathe.

Floyd’s killing sparked massive racial injustice protests across the nation and around the world over the way police treat people of color, particularly Black Americans in the US. An investigation by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights revealed that Minneapolis and its police department engaged in “a pattern or practice of race discrimination,” according to a 2022 report.

Earlier this week, the US Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Chauvin on his state conviction after he argued he didn’t receive a fair trial. The high court rejected Chauvin’s appeal without comment or a recorded vote.

More details as it unfolds........