Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted in the 2020 murder of George Floyd, was stabbed Friday in a federal prison in Arizona, The Associated Press and The New York Times reported.
A person familiar with the matter told CNN Chauvin was assaulted Friday at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson and was in stable condition.
“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 CNN 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,” the statement said.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office prosecuted Chauvin in the George Floyd case, was notified that Chauvin was stabbed and is in stable condition, his office told CNN early Saturday.
“I am sad to hear that Derek Chauvin was the target of violence,” Ellison said in a release from his office. “He was duly convicted of his crimes and, like any incarcerated individual, he should be able to serve his sentence without fear of retaliation or violence.”
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, knelt on Floyd’s neck and back for more than 9 minutes on May 25, 2020, after officers responded to reports suspecting Floyd used a counterfeit $20 at a Minneapolis corner store. 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.
This story has been updated with additional information.
Clarification: This story was updated to clarify that The Associated Press and The New York Times reported Derek Chauvin was stabbed. CNN’s source only confirmed he was assaulted.
CNN’s Taylor Romine, Aya Elamroussi and Josh Campbell contributed to this report.