Report: Man who stabbed Chauvin 22 times is a gang member and former FBI informant

TUCSON, AZ - Law Enforcement Today recently reported on the prison stabbing of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Now, the man who stabbed Chauvin 22 times once served as an FBI informant, Fox News reported. 

John Turscak, 52, is facing attempted murder charges in the unprovoked attack on Chauvin, who apparently finds himself in general population at an Arizona federal prison despite his high-profile lynching by Minnesota prosecutors and the Department of Justice. The assault occurred inside a law library at the Tucson prison. Turscak is also facing numerous assault charges as well as inflicting serious bodily injury with an “improvised knife,” also known as a shank. 

Turscak told investigators he specifically picked Black Friday to attack Chauvin to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, the group that led violent riots after it appeared Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, had killed career criminal and fentanyl aficionado George Floyd by kneeling on his neck.

Turscak said the date was “symbolic with the Black Lives Matter movement and the ‘Black Hand’ symbol associated with the Mexican Mafia criminal organization,” FBI agents said. 

In the days since the stabbing, it has been uncovered that Turscak is apparently a former FBI informant who provided intel to the FBI about the Mexican Mafia in 1997 whereby he provided information about the violent criminal gang as well as recordings of conversations between him, members and associates. 

That investigation resulted in 40 indictments of Mexican Mafia gang members, according to a 2001 Los Angeles Times report. Allegedly, Turscak was dropped by the FBI as an informant because he was dealing drugs, authorizing assaults, extorting money, and conspiring to kill a rival gang member.

Turscak said he told the FBI about his methods, and they replied, “Do what you have to do.” 

“I didn’t commit those crimes for kicks. I did them because I had to if I wanted to stay alive.” 

Ironically, the stabbing came shortly after Chauvin requested a new trial based on new evidence uncovered about the Floyd case showing he was not responsible for Floyd’s death. Separately, the United States Supreme Court rejected a separate appeal just days before the stabbing.

After the assault, Chauvin was taken to a hospital for “emergency medical treatment” after prison employees performed “life-saving measures” on him. 

Despite stabbing Chauvin 22 times, Turscak denied he was trying to kill him. 

The New York Post reported that Turscak was convicted in 1997 for crimes he committed while working as the FBI’s informant against the Mexican Mafia. 

Chauvin was reported to be in serious condition after the attack. Chauvin’s attorney, Greg Erickson, told the New York Post Wednesday that Chauvin’s family has not been able to speak with Chauvin and don’t know about his current condition. 

“They say he’s stable, but he also could be stable but unconscious, we just don’t know,” Erickson said. “That’s all we were told.” 

Meanwhile, Chauvin’s mother, Carolyn Pawlenty, slammed prison officials in an interview with Alpha News. 

“After getting a call from Derek and hearing how it happened and how there was no one around and that Derek tried to fight him off, but at every turn he would get stabbed again, and what this guy did, I’m wondering how something like this could even happen. Where were the guards?” she said. 

“I’m in a state of shock that it happened. How safe is he now? Where are they going to put him where he is ever going to be safe again? I will not ever give up on getting the truth out. I am outraged, angry, and shocked,” Pawlenty said. “Thank God he’s alive.”