Officer Convicted in George Floyd’s Death Transferred to West Texas Prison

BIG SPRING, TX — Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted in the death of George Floyd, has been transferred to a federal prison in Big Spring, Texas, the federal Bureau of Prisons announced Tuesday.

The move comes nearly nine months after Chauvin was stabbed 22 times by a former gang leader in another facility.

Chauvin, 47, is now housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Big Spring, a low-security prison. Previously, he was held at FCI Tucson in Arizona, where he had been serving a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights alongside a 22 1/2-year state sentence for second-degree murder.

The transfer follows an incident where Chauvin was attacked by a fellow inmate, who was a former gang leader and an informant for the FBI.

In related news, another former Minneapolis officer, Thomas Lane, was released from federal prison in Colorado on Tuesday. Lane, 41, had been serving a three-year sentence for aiding and abetting manslaughter.

He had pleaded guilty to helping restrain Floyd, admitting he knowingly created an unreasonable risk that led to Floyd’s death. Lane acknowledged that he heard Floyd say he couldn’t breathe and saw that Floyd had no pulse before losing consciousness.

Both officers were convicted for their roles in the May 2020 death of George Floyd, which sparked nationwide protests and calls for police reform.