US police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murdering African-American George Floyd, was stabbed and injured in prison by a fellow inmate. The New York Times reported this, citing “two sources familiar with the case.” Accordingly, 47-year-old Chauvin survived the attack. The prison authority confirmed to AFP an attack at the detention center in Tucson, Arizona, without naming the victim.
The employees initiated life-saving measures for a person in custody, the statement said. He was therefore “transported to a local hospital for further treatment and examination.”
In May 2020, white police officer Chauvin pressed his knee into the neck of a black man in Minneapolis who was arrested over a suspected counterfeit $20 bill for around nine and a half minutes, even though Floyd repeatedly complained that he could no longer breathe. Floyd’s complaint “I can’t breathe” – “I can’t breathe” or “I can’t breathe” – went around the world and became a motto of the anti-racism movement Black Lives Matter. The case sparked mass protests against racism and police violence in the United States and many other countries.
Chauvin was sentenced in June 2021 to 22 years and six months in prison for second-degree murder – in German law this roughly corresponds to manslaughter in a serious case. The two police officers who pinned Floyd to the ground along with Chauvin later pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting manslaughter. They were sentenced to 36 and 42 months in prison, respectively. Last week, the US Supreme Court rejected Chauvin’s appeal against his conviction.
