The former police officer convicted of killing George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died as the result of neck compression during his arrest, has been moved to an Arizona prison.
State officials say Derek Chauvin has been moved from a Minnesota state prison where he was often held in solitary confinement to a medium-security federal prison in Arizona, where he will likely be held under less restrictive conditions.
Chauvin was taken from a maximum-security prison in a Minneapolis suburb to the federal prison in Tucson. A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons declined to give details of the circumstances of Chauvin's confinement in the new location.
Chauvin reportedly spent most of his time in the state prison in his cell. Authorities say that was partly for his safety in a population that typically has more violent offenders than federal prisons.
Chauvin was sentenced last month in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota, to 21 years on federal civil rights charges after pleading guilty in an agreement with prosecutors. He was already serving 22 1/2 years for his conviction in state court on murder and manslaughter charges; a condition of the agreement called for the sentences to be served concurrently and in federal prison.
Chauvin, who is white, killed Floyd by pinning him to the pavement with his knee for 9 1/2 minutes as bystander video captured Floyd struggling to breathe and crying out for help.
Floyd was suspected of passing a counterfeit bill at a nearby grocery store.
Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020, touched off a firestorm of protests around the world and refocused attention on police brutality and racism.