MINNEAPOLIS — Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer serving a sentence for the murder of George Floyd more than four years ago, has been moved without public explanation from a federal prison in Arizona to a transfer facility in Oklahoma, according to government records.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons says Chauvin is now housed at its administrative security federal transfer center in Oklahoma City. The bureau’s handbook for the facility describes the Oklahoma City prison as a lockup for inmates that includes “in-transit holdovers and parole violators.”
Bureau spokeswoman Randilee Giamusso said Monday that Chauvin’s transfer occurred Friday, but she declined to disclose the reason for the 48-year-old inmate’s move or whether sending him to another federal facility is being planned.
“For privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not discuss the conditions of confinement for any individual, including reasons for transfer,” Giamusso said.
However, Chauvin’s mother said in a social media post over the weekend that his time in Oklahoma City will be short-lived.
“At this time DO NOT send Derek any cards/mail, books or commissary money as he has been moved temporarily to Oklahoma City,” Carolyn Pawlenty wrote. “I’m not sure where his permanent state will be. … Not knowing many details about my son has given me a high level of anxiety. … I don’t have many details yet to share, but will post when I do.”
On Nov. 24, a fellow prisoner stabbed Chauvin 22 times with an improvised knife in the Tucson prison, but officials have yet to say whether that attack is related to Chauvin’s relocation.
John Turscak, 53, has been charged in U.S. District Court with attempted murder, assault with intent to commit murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and assault resulting in serious bodily injury stemming from the attack in the Tucson prison’s law library.
The charges say Turscak told corrections officers that he had been thinking about attacking Chauvin because of the fired police officer’s notoriety from the killing of Floyd.
Chauvin has been serving a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights and a 22 1/2-year state sentence for second-degree murder. He’s due to be released from prison in January 2038, according to Bureau of Prison records.
Floyd, who was Black, died while pinned under the knee of Chauvin, who is white, at the corner of Chicago Avenue and 38th Street in south Minneapolis. Floyd’s death ignited days of protests and at times deadly riots.
Turscak, a one-time Los Angeles street gang member, was sentenced in November 2001 to 30 years in prison for committing numerous crimes while acting as an undercover informant for the FBI in Southern California.
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