Derek Chauvin transferred to low-security federal prison in Texas; his second move in a week

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of killing George Floyd, was transferred Tuesday for the second time in recent days and is now housed in a federal prison in Texas, a federal Bureau of Prisons official said.

Chauvin, 48, is imprisoned in Big Spring, a low-security facility east of Midland, a Bureau of Prisons (BOP) spokesperson told the Star Tribune. A week earlier, he was moved from a federal prison in Arizona to a transfer facility in Oklahoma, according to government records.

On Nov. 24, a fellow Arizona prisoner stabbed Chauvin 22 times with an improvised knife in a Tucson prison, but officials have yet to say whether that attack is related to Chauvin’s relocations.

The BOP said its policy is not to disclose the reasons for any inmate transfers.

Chauvin’s mother, Carolyn Pawlenty, told the Star Tribune: “I know nothing about his move. Once again, his mother is the last to know.”

Pawlenty also complained in November she was not contacted by federal officials after her son was stabbed.

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.

Turscak is tentatively scheduled to go on trial Nov. 26.

Chauvin has been serving a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights and a 22½-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 died while pinned under the knee of Chauvin 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 onetime 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.

News of Chauvin’s transfer came on the same day that Thomas Lane, another of the officers convicted of killing Floyd, was released Tuesday from federal prison. BOP spokeswoman Randilee Giamusso told the Star Tribune that Lane left the federal low-security facility in Littleton, Colo., Tuesday morning.

Lane, 41, completed the federal portion of his prison time in April. He then stayed in custody to satisfy his state sentence in Hennepin County District Court for aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Another year of supervised release will follow before he satisfies the terms of his state sentence, a BOP spokesperson said.

The remaining accomplices, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng, were also convicted in state and federal courts and remain imprisoned with release dates scheduled for April, according to the BOP.