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John Turscak, a former one-time FBI informant and gang leader, was charged with attempted murder after stabbing Derek Chauvin 22 times on November 24. The latter was sent to the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Tucson after violating George Floyd’s civil rights and for second-degree murder.
According to CBS News, John Turscak was charged with assault to commit murder, attempted murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, and assault resulting in serious bodily injury. Federal documents revealed that Chauvin was stabbed on Black Friday with a makeshift knife at the law library in the FCI.
In an interview with FBI agents, John Turscak stated that Black Friday stood as a symbol for the Black Lives Matter movement and the “Black Hand” symbol associated with the Mexican Mafia group. Prosecutors also alleged that Turscak thought about attacking Chauvin for a month before he assaulted the high-profile inmate. It was also alleged that Turscak did not wish to kill Chauvin.
Correctional officers revealed that pepper spray was used to subdue Turscak following the attack. The Bureau of Prisons also revealed that “life-saving measures” were performed on Chauvin before he was taken to the hospital for treatment.
John Turscak is serving a 30-year sentence
According to the Los Angeles Times, John Turscak was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2001. He was accused of carrying out crimes while working as a federal informant.
AP News revealed that Turscak was leading a fraction of the Mexican Mafia in the Los Angeles area in the late 1990s. He reportedly went by the nickname "Stranger." Later, he allegedly became an FBI informant in 1997 to provide information about his gang. He proceeded to record conversations he had with members and his associates.
John Turscak was eventually dropped by the FBI as they discovered that he had been selling drugs, extorting money, and ordering assaults. He reportedly plotted attacks on rival gang members and was also accused of attempting to kill the leader of a rival mafia fraction.
In 2001, he went on to plead guilty to racketeering and conspiring to kill a gang rival. According to news reports, he said:
"I didn’t commit those crimes for kicks. I did them because I had to if I wanted to stay alive. I told them to the FBI agents and they just said, 'do what you have to do.'"
Per CBS News, Turscak also murdered a man in 1990 while in Folsom Prison.
According to X (formerly known as Twitter) user @uppittynegrees, they were unable to find a picture of John Turscak. They went on to attach multiple images of Black men, captioning the post,
“Not only can I not find his picture, a bunch of thumbnails for the story featured random men, most of them are Black. One is even of Keith ellison, the AG of Minnesota.”
In response to the tweet, X user @heartofamerica76 noted that Turscak's identity might be unknown to the public as he was put behind bars in 2001, likely when there were "different booking procedures."
According to AZ Central, Turscak was moved to an adjacent federal penitentiary, where he is to remain in custody following the recent attack. He was scheduled to complete his sentence in 2026.
Netizens react as John Turscak attacks Derek Chauvin
Many found it peculiar that Turscak, a former FBI informant, attacked Chauvin, who is a former police officer.
Derek Chauvin is serving a 21-year sentence and a 22-year sentence simultaneously. His lawyer, Eric Nelson, contended to have the former police officer kept away from other inmates to ensure that he was not vulnerable to potential violence. He was then kept in solitary confinement.
In response to the recent attack, attorney Greg Erickson told WCCO in an interview that Chauvin’s family was “extremely disappointed” about the incident. They also reportedly did not find it “shocking” that he would be targeted. Erickson believed that FCI Tucson should have done better to ensure such attacks would not take place.
