George Floyd's death remains dire reminder of U.S. racial tensions, as former police officer convicted of his murder stabbed

WASHINGTON/BEIJING, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- Derek Chauvin, a U.S. police officer convicted of killing George Floyd in 2020, was stabbed in federal prison on Friday, reported local media, citing sources.

According to people familiar with the matter, Chauvin survived the attack.

The incident happened at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI), Tucson, a medium-security prison in the U.S. state of Arizona. The person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the attack and spoke to local media on the condition of anonymity.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that an incarcerated person was assaulted at FCI Tucson at around 12:30 p.m. local time Friday (1930 GMT).

In a local statement, responding employees contained the incident and performed "life-saving measures" on the inmate.

Chauvin was sent to FCI Tucson from a maximum-security Minnesota state prison in August 2022 to serve 22 and a half years in prison for the brutal kneeling that caused the death of Floyd three years ago.

Video footage captured by bystanders showed Chauvin knelt on the 46-year-old Black man's neck for nearly 10 minutes on May 25, 2020, while the man was pinned to the ground, gasping for air and saying "I can't breathe."

Medics arrived shortly later and loaded the motionless man into an ambulance; the Black man was pronounced dead later.

The former Minneapolis police officer is also serving a 21-year federal sentence for violating the Black man's civil rights.

Floyd's death unleashed a wave of protests worldwide against police brutality and racism, but there would be other victims that would endure a similar fate.

For example, Amir Locke, 22, was fatally shot by Minneapolis police executing a "no-knock" search warrant as part of a homicide investigation on an early February morning in 2022. Body camera footage shows a gun in Locke's hand -- which he legally possessed -- as he was abruptly awakened and emerged from a couch.

Locke was not a suspect in the crime for which the warrant was issued and was not named at all in the document but prosecutors declined to file charges against the officer who took his life.

Thousands of Americans gathered at the National Mall on Aug. 26 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, a monumental event in the U.S. civil rights movement most remembered because of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

Dr. King's 15-year-old granddaughter, Yolanda Renee King spoke to the crowd. She said if she had a chance to say something to her grandfather today, she would say, "I am sorry we still have to be here to rededicate ourselves to finishing your work and ultimately realizing your hidden dream."

"Sixty years ago, Dr. King urged us to struggle against the triple evils of racism, poverty and bigotry," she said. "Today, racism is still with us."

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Chauvin's appeal of his state court murder conviction. The appeal had been filed after a Minnesota appellate court upheld his 2021 murder conviction and rejected his request for a new trial.