Derek Chauvin attacker, 52, is charged with attempted murder after he stabbed ex-cop 22 TIMES with 'improvised knife' in prison law library on Black Friday 'as a symbolic connection to BLM'

Derek Chauvin, the police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, was stabbed 22 times with an 'improvised knife' in a horror prison stabbing last week, it has been revealed. 

The attacker, identified as John Turscak, has been charged with attempted murder, and reportedly told officers he would have killed the disgraced former cop if they had not responded quickly, prosecutors said. 

Chauvin was targeted in the law library at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona, with Turscak telling FBI agents he had been planning the attack for around a month. 

The inmate also said he chose Black Friday as the date of his attack for symbolic connection to the Black Lives Matter movement, which sparked nationwide protests in the summer of 2020. 

It is unclear what Turscak was serving time in prison for at this time.  

Turscak also said he chose the day after Thanksgiving to attack in connection with the 'Black Hand' symbol associated with the Mexican Mafia gang, prosecutors said. 

He remains in custody and has no attorney listed in court records, and has previously represented himself in numerous court proceedings. 

Chauvin is serving 21 years for violating the civil rights of Floyd, and was originally housed in a maximum-security prison in Minnesota before being moved to FCI Tuscon in Arizona in August 2022.

He is also serving a simultaneous 22 and a half year sentence for second degree murder. He was convicted of the May 2022 murder of Floyd after pressing his knee on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes. 

The former police officer's lawyer Eric Nelson has previously advocated for keeping his client out of general prison populations due to the high profile nature of his crime. 

As an anticipated target, Chauvin was kept mainly in solitary confinement 'largely for his own protection', Nelson said last year.