Found guilty of the murder of George Floyd and sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison, Derek Chauvin has become one of the faces of systemic racism in the United States. On May 25, 2020, the white police officer, then a seasoned police officer in Minneapolis (north), remained kneeling for nearly ten minutes on the neck of George Floyd, aged 46, and remained indifferent to the interventions of shocked passers-by and the groans of the forty-year-old.
Derek Chauvin, 47, “was stabbed Friday in a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona,” according to “two people familiar with this matter,” writes the New York Times. The police officer “survived the attack”, adds the American daily, relying on one of these people. The American federal prison authorities sent a statement confirming an “assault” without specifying the name of the victim.
No regrets, no excuses
Prison employees “took measures to save the life of an incarcerated person” and emergency medical services “were requested,” prison authorities said in this press release. The detainee was transported “to a local hospital for treatment and examination,” they add.
He was convicted of murder by the Minnesota state courts following a closely watched trial in 2021 and sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison. The United States Supreme Court last week rejected Derek Chauvin’s appeal against this conviction. Derek Chauvin also pleaded guilty to “violations of the civil rights” of George Floyd before a federal judge and received another sentence in 2022, 21 years in prison. During his trials, the former police officer did not show regret or apologize.
During his 19-year career, the police officer received four medals but was also the subject of 22 complaints and internal investigations, according to a public file redacted of all details. Only one of them was followed by a letter of reprimand. According to the press, it had been dropped off by a white woman whom he had violently removed from her car in 2007 for speeding.