Ex-officer Derek Chauvin, convicted in George Floyd's killing, stabbed in prison
US: Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, was stabbed by another inmate and seriously injured Friday at a federal prison in Arizona, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
The attack happened at the Federal Correctional Institution, Tucson, a medium-security prison that has been plagued by security lapses and staffing shortages. The person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the attack and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.
The Bureau of Prisons confirmed that an incarcerated person was assaulted at FCI Tucson at around 12:30 p.m. local time Friday. In a statement, the agency said responding employees contained the incident and performed life-saving measures before the inmate, who it did not name, was taken to a hospital for further treatment and evaluation.
No employees were injured and the FBI was notified, the Bureau of Prisons said. Visiting at the facility, which has about 380 inmates, has been suspended.
Messages seeking comment were left with Chauvin's lawyers and the FBI.
Chauvin's stabbing is the second high-profile attack on a federal prisoner in the last five months. In July, disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar was stabbed by a fellow inmate at a federal penitentiary in Florida.
It is also the second major incident at the Tucson federal prison in a little over a year. In November 2022, an inmate at the facility's low-security prison camp pulled out a gun and attempted to shoot a visitor in the head. The weapon, which the inmate shouldn't have had, misfired and no one was hurt.
Chauvin, 47, was sent to FCI Tucson from a maximum-security Minnesota state prison in August 2022 to simultaneously serve a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd's civil rights and a 22½-year state sentence for second-degree murder.
Chauvin's lawyer, Eric Nelson, had advocated for keeping him out of general population and away from other inmates, anticipating he'd be a target. In Minnesota, Chauvin was mainly kept in solitary confinement largely for his own protection, Nelson wrote in court papers last year.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Chauvin's appeal of his murder conviction. Separately, Chauvin is making a longshot bid to overturn his federal guilty plea, claiming new evidence shows he didn't cause Floyd's death.
Floyd, who was Black, died on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin, who is white, pressed a knee on his neck for 9½ minutes on the street outside a convenience store where Floyd was suspected of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.
Bystander video captured Floyd's fading cries of I can't breathe.His death touched off protests worldwide, some of which turned violent, and forced a national reckoning with police brutality and racism.
Three other former officers who were at the scene received lesser state and federal sentences for their roles in Floyd's death.
Chauvin's stabbing comes as the federal Bureau of Prisons has faced increased scrutiny in recent years following wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein's jail suicide in 2019. It's another example of the agency's inability to keep even its highest profile prisoners safe after Nassar's stabbing and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski's suicide at a federal medical center in June.
An ongoing AP investigation has uncovered deep, previously unreported flaws within the Bureau of Prisons, the Justice Department's largest law enforcement agency with more than 30,000 employees, 158,000 inmates and an annual budget of about $8 billion.
AP reporting has revealed rampant sexual abuse and other criminal conduct by staff, dozens of escapes, chronic violence, deaths and severe staffing shortages that have hampered responses to emergencies, including inmate assaults and suicides.
Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters was brought in last year to reform the crisis-plagued agency. She vowed to change archaic hiring practices and bring new transparency, while emphasizing that the agency's mission is to make good neighbors, not good inmates."
Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September, Peters touted steps she'd taken to overhaul problematic prisons and beef up internal affairs investigations. This month, she told a House Judiciary subcommittee that hiring had improved and that new hires were outpacing retirements and other departures.
But Peters has also irritated lawmakers who said she reneged on her promise to be candid and open with them. In September, senators scolded her for forcing them to wait more than a year for answers to written questions and for claiming that she couldn't answer basic questions about agency operations, like how many correctional officers are on staff.
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Motivational speaker Sonu Sharma slams govt, Supreme Court over Aravalli Hills order
Says If Aravalli falls, our future falls
New Delhi: Motivational speaker and life coach Sonu Sharma has strongly criticised the Narendra Modi-led central government and the Supreme Court over recent developments related to the Aravalli Hills, warning that the decisions could have long-term consequences for North India’s environment and air quality.
In a video posted on social media, Sharma questioned the logic behind treating parts of the Aravalli range measuring less than 100 metres in height as non-mountains, a position that has emerged from recent legal interpretations. Without naming specific judgments, Sharma said such reasoning effectively strips large portions of the ancient mountain range of legal protection and opens the door for large-scale mining.
The Aravalli range, considered one of the oldest mountain systems in the world, plays a crucial role in checking desertification, regulating climate and acting as a natural barrier against dust storms from the Thar desert. Environmentalists have long warned that continued degradation of the Aravallis could worsen air pollution in cities such as Delhi and accelerate ecological damage across Rajasthan, Haryana and the National Capital Region.
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In the video, Sharma argued that redefining mountains based on arbitrary height criteria amounts to legitimising environmental destruction. He compared it to denying basic human identity based on physical attributes, calling the approach illogical and dangerous. He claimed that in Rajasthan alone, nearly 12,000 peaks are part of the Aravalli system, and that only around 1,000 of them exceed 100 metres, leaving the vast majority vulnerable to legal mining activity.
Sharma also took aim at a televised statement by senior news anchor Rajat Sharma, who had said that Delhi’s pollution gets trapped because the city is shaped like a bowl surrounded by the Aravalli Hills. Sharma rejected the argument that the Aravallis are responsible for pollution, instead describing them as the “lungs of North India” whose destruction is aggravating the crisis.
Without directly naming the court, Sharma said institutions were issuing orders without understanding environmental realities. His remarks have been widely interpreted as a criticism of the Supreme Court’s recent stance on the Aravalli Hills, which has drawn concern from environmental groups who fear it may weaken safeguards against mining.
The video has gained significant traction online, given Sharma’s large following of over five million followers on Instagram and more than 13 million subscribers on YouTube. Many users echoed his concerns, saying unchecked mining and construction in the Aravallis would worsen water scarcity, air pollution and desertification.
Sharma ended his message with a call to protect the Aravalli range, warning that continued neglect would have irreversible consequences. “If the Aravalli falls, our future will also fall,” he said, urging citizens to speak up against policies and orders that, in his view, prioritise development over environmental survival.
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