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George Floyd’s killer Derek Chauvin has survived an assassination attempt in prison.
A former mob boss and police informant stabbed him 22 times with a self-made knife in the library.
The perpetrator wanted to honor the Black Lives Matter movement and planned the crime for a month.
Just over two years ago, former police officer Derek Chauvin, 47, was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for killing the American George Floyd. The case received a lot of attention in the United States and the world and led to large protests against racism and police brutality in the United States.
Chauvin is serving his sentence at a prison in Tucson, Arizona.
So does a former mafia boss, 52-year-old John Turscak, who was the leader of a phalanx of the Mexican mafia in Los Angeles and later also a police informant, reports AP.
Held in the library
On November 24, Black Friday, Derek Chauvin was in the prison library.
Then Turscak attacked with a “self-made knife” and stabbed Chauvin 22 times. Chauvin was taken to hospital and has been treated for life-threatening injuries but is expected to survive the crime.
Turscak says in questioning that Chauvin would probably have died if the prison guards had not intervened so quickly with pepper spray. He allegedly planned the attack for a month, but claims the goal was not to kill Chauvin. According to Turscak, he wanted to hurt Chauvin because he is a high-priority prisoner and to do so in honor of the Black Lives Matter movement.
From mafia boss to police informant
Turscak led his gang in Los Angeles in the late 1990s and was called “The Stranger”.
Recruited by the FBI as an informant, he provided crucial information about criminal gangs that led to more than 40 indictments.
The FBI eventually cut off the cooperation because Turscak continued with drug trafficking, extortion and serious crime.
John Turscak would have served his 30-year prison sentence in 2026. Now he faces an additional 60 years in prison after the attack on Derek Chauvin.