John Turscak, 52, became an FBI informant in 1997.
The inmate accused of stabbing Derek Chauvin 22 times at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona has been revealed to be a former FBI informant.
John Turscak, 52, who has been charged with attempted murder for allegedly stabbing Chauvin, became an FBI informant in 1997, according to the LA Times.
Turscak was sought out by the FBI while he was a member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang. He helped federal authorities with an investigation that resulted in the indictment of more than 40 Mexican Mafia members and associates, the outlet reports.
However, Turscak was dropped as an informant after prosecutors said he admitted to extorting money, dealing drugs, and authorizing assaults while receiving monetary compensation as an informant.
In 2001, Turscak was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to racketeering and conspiring to kill a rival in the prison-based gang.
At the time of his sentencing, he slammed the FBI and told US District Court Judge A. Howard Matz: "I didn't commit those crimes for kicks. I did them because I had to if I wanted to stay alive. I told that to the [FBI] agents and they just said, 'Do what you have to do.'"
Turscak has now allegedly admitted to stabbing the former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd during an arrest in May 2020 and spoke with FBI agents following the attack on Chauvin.
Prosecutors said that Tursak used an improvised knife and allegedly told authorities he would have killed Chauvin had they not intervened, according to the Associated Press.
Prosecutors claim that Turscak later disclosed to FBI agents that he had been contemplating assaulting Chauvin for approximately one month due to the fact that he is a high-profile inmate, but denied intending to murder him.
Turscak informed the agents that he planned to attack Chauvin, 47, on Black Friday, the day following Thanksgiving, as a symbolic nod to the Black Lives Matter movement and the "Black Hand" emblem affiliated with the Mexican Mafia gang, prosecutors said, according to the outlet.
Chauvin was sentenced to 252 months in prison, with credit for time served. He pleaded guilty in federal court in December 2021 to "willfully depriving Mr. Floyd of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer, resulting in Mr. Floyd's bodily injury and death."
An autopsy revealed that Floyd, who had been accused of trying to pass a counterfeit bill by a cashier who called police to the scene, had an excessive amount of drugs in his system. In testimony that came out of another case, a staffer stated that there had been pressure to ensure Chauvin was convicted due to the fact that the case had gained national attention. That attention resulted in "defund the police" movements nationwide.
The inmate accused of stabbing Derek Chauvin 22 times at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona has been revealed to be a former FBI informant.
John Turscak, 52, who has been charged with attempted murder for allegedly stabbing Chauvin, became an FBI informant in 1997, according to the LA Times.
Turscak was sought out by the FBI while he was a member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang. He helped federal authorities with an investigation that resulted in the indictment of more than 40 Mexican Mafia members and associates, the outlet reports.
However, Turscak was dropped as an informant after prosecutors said he admitted to extorting money, dealing drugs, and authorizing assaults while receiving monetary compensation as an informant.
In 2001, Turscak was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to racketeering and conspiring to kill a rival in the prison-based gang.
At the time of his sentencing, he slammed the FBI and told US District Court Judge A. Howard Matz: "I didn't commit those crimes for kicks. I did them because I had to if I wanted to stay alive. I told that to the [FBI] agents and they just said, 'Do what you have to do.'"
Turscak has now allegedly admitted to stabbing the former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd during an arrest in May 2020 and spoke with FBI agents following the attack on Chauvin.
Prosecutors said that Tursak used an improvised knife and allegedly told authorities he would have killed Chauvin had they not intervened, according to the Associated Press.
Prosecutors claim that Turscak later disclosed to FBI agents that he had been contemplating assaulting Chauvin for approximately one month due to the fact that he is a high-profile inmate, but denied intending to murder him.
Turscak informed the agents that he planned to attack Chauvin, 47, on Black Friday, the day following Thanksgiving, as a symbolic nod to the Black Lives Matter movement and the "Black Hand" emblem affiliated with the Mexican Mafia gang, prosecutors said, according to the outlet.
Chauvin was sentenced to 252 months in prison, with credit for time served. He pleaded guilty in federal court in December 2021 to "willfully depriving Mr. Floyd of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer, resulting in Mr. Floyd's bodily injury and death."
An autopsy revealed that Floyd, who had been accused of trying to pass a counterfeit bill by a cashier who called police to the scene, had an excessive amount of drugs in his system. In testimony that came out of another case, a staffer stated that there had been pressure to ensure Chauvin was convicted due to the fact that the case had gained national attention. That attention resulted in "defund the police" movements nationwide.
