Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, has been returned to prison custody after his recent stabbing in an Arizona prison resulted in an improvement in his health, according to his attorney.
“Derek’s family confirmed that his medical condition has improved to the extent that he has been removed from the trauma care facility at a local Tucson hospital and returned to prison custody for his follow-up care,” states a statement from Gregory M. Erickson, Chauvin’s attorney, to PEOPLE.
The facility’s ability to shield Derek from additional injury worries Chauvin’s family, according to Erickson, and they “remain unassured that any changes have been made to the faulty procedures that allowed Derek’s attack to occur in the first place.”
On November 24, inside the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Chauvin, 47, was stabbed 22 times. Following the stabbing, he was “transported to a local hospital for further treatment and evaluation,” according to a statement made at the time by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
Since then, inmate John Tursack has been charged with attempt murder of Chauvin, as well as assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with the purpose to commit murder, and assault causing serious bodily harm to Chauvin. Chauvin is currently serving a 22-year term for the murder of George Floyd.
CNN reports that Tursack, 52, planned the attack for months before stabbing Chauvin with a “improvised knife,” according to court documents.
According to the site, Chauvin was stabbed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson about 12:30 p.m. local time when he was in the law library. The federal lawsuit claimed that the incident “caused serious bodily injury.”
In his statement, Erickson claims that Chauvin gave his family his word that “the facts contained in the charging document are accurate.”
Tursack told detectives that he attacked Chauvin on Black Friday in reference to the Black Lives Matter movement and the “Black Hand” sign linked to the Mexican Mafia group, according to the criminal complaint, which was obtained by the Associated Press.
Chauvin was first described by the authorities as someone who was “expected to survive” the incident.
Chauvin is recovering, according to remarks made to PEOPLE by state attorney general Keith Ellison’s office and Minneapolis police director Brian O’Hara.
After putting his knee on George Floyd’s neck during an arrest on May 25, 2020, Chauvin killed the Black Minneapolis man, George Floyd, and entered a guilty plea to federal charges of violating his civil rights in July 2022.
After being found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter in connection with Floyd’s death, the former police officer received a sentence of more than 20 years in jail.
