(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department announced Friday that it has charged the man who stabbed Derek Chauvin—the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murder after George Floyd died of an overdose—22 times in prison with attempted murder.
It turns out, the man, 52-year-old former Mexican mafia member John Turscak, was an FBI informant.
According to a 2001 article from the Los Angeles Times, Tursack admitted to committing numerous crimes while working as an undercover FBI informant.
When Tursack was sentenced to 30-years imprisonment for racketeering and conspiring to kill a rival in the prison-based gang, he reportedly expressed bitter disappointment.
“I didn’t commit those crimes for kicks. I did them because I had to if I wanted to stay alive. I told that to the [FBI] agents and they just said, ‘Do what you have to do,’” he said at the time.
According to the LA Times, Turscak became an informant in an investigation that resulted in the indictment of more than 40 alleged Mexican Mafia members and associates.
“Midway through the probe, however, prosecutors dropped him as an informer after he admitted dealing drugs, extorting money and authorizing assaults while on the government payroll,” the LA Times reported in 2001.
Some 22 years later, Tursack allegedly stabbed Chauvin at the Federal Correctional Institution, Tucson, a medium-security prison that has been plagued by security lapses and staffing shortages.
The Bureau of Prisons confirmed that an incarcerated person was assaulted at FCI Tucson at around 12:30 p.m. local time last 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.
Chauvin’s family has reportedly been kept in the dark by federal prison officials after he was stabbed in prison.
Last Saturday, Brian Evans, a spokesperson for the Minnesota attorney general’s office, did say: “We have heard that he is expected to survive.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
