From Staff Reports
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been transferred to a prison in Texas after surviving a stabbing in an Arizona facility.
Chauvin was convicted in April 2021 of murdering George Floyd, a Black man, by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes. He was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison for the murder and was serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Ariz.
The facility is medium-security but has reportedly faced problems with security and staffing.
Chauvin, 47, is now housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Big Spring, a low-security prison. He was previously held in Arizona at FCI Tucson in August 2022 to simultaneously serve a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights and a 22 1/2-year state sentence for second-degree murder.
The Federal Correctional Institution, Big Spring (FCI Big Spring) is a low-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Texas. The facility also has a satellite prison camp that houses minimum-security male offenders.
FCI Big Spring is located in the city of Big Spring, Texas, midway between Dallas and El Paso.[1] The town is also the location of the privately owned and operated Big Spring Correctional Center, which contracts with the FBOP to house federal detainees at four locations. FCI Big Spring and the BSCC occupy buildings and facilities repurposed from the closed Webb Air Force Base.
John Turscak, who is serving a 30-year sentence for crimes committed while a member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang, attacked Chauvin on Nov. 24, 2023. He told investigators he targeted the ex-Minneapolis police officer because of his notoriety for killing Floyd.
FCI Tucson, a medium-security prison, has been plagued by security lapses and staffing shortages. Chauvin’s lawyer at the time, Eric Nelson, had advocated for keeping him out of the general population and away from other inmates, anticipating he would be a target.
Turscak, who was charged with attempted murder, told correctional officers he would have killed Chauvin had they not responded so quickly.
