What is Derek Chauvin s Age and Where is He Today

Derek Chauvin (full name: Derek Michael Chauvin; born March 19, 1976) is 47-year-old American former police office who is currently serving a 22½-year jail term at the Federal Correctional Institution, Tucson for the murder of George Floyd.

He was convicted on a 2-count charge of deprivation of rights under color of law, 1 count of unintentional second-degree murder, 1 count of third-degree murder, and 1 count of second-degree manslaughter following his involvement in the death of George Floyd. Here’s what we know about the former Minneapolis Police Department member.

Derek Chauvin Bio

Derek Chauvin is currently 47 years old. He was born on March 19, 1976, in Oakdale, Minnesota. His birth sign is Pisces and he belongs to the Caucasian ethnic group. The former Minneapolis Police Department member is undoubtedly an American citizen by birth.

Technically, Derek Chauvin is the only child Robert Michael Chauvin, a certified public accountant at Chauvin and Associates, had with his ex-wife, Carolyn Marie Pawlenty who was a housewife when they were married.

Chauvin’s parents divorced when he was 7 years old following the birth of his half-sister Krysta Pawlenty. His family broke apart because his father’s suspicions that his mother was cheating on him with another man were confirmed when a paternity test he requested to ascertain who the biological father of Krysta revealed that Leroy Jerome Pawlenty Jr. was her biological father.

Following the divorce, his parents were granted joint custody of him before his mom, who later went on to marry her daughter’s father, moved to Peosta, Iowa, where she lives to date.

During the trial of her son, she gained further public attention for implying that the proceedings had made her son out to be a racist, a tag she claimed was misleading. She further went on to ask the judge to be lenient with her son. Suffice it to say that her efforts to get Derek Chauvin out of the hole he dug for himself were seriously criticized by most members of the media and the public.

Although he has lived most of his life in Minneapolis, Derek Chauvin is originally from Oakdale, Minnesota. He spent most of his formative years in the area and received his high school education at Park High School in Cottage Grove, Minnesota. Several records show that he did not graduate from high school but he later obtained a GED certificate to make up for it.

After high school, Chauvin went on to acquire a certificate in quantity food preparation at Dakota County Technical College. Afterward, he took up employment at a buffet restaurant and McDonald’s. From 1996 to 2004, Derek Chauvin served in the US Army Reserve and had two stints in the military police from 1996 to 2000.

Just before he was drafted into the military reserves, the former Minneapolis PD member was a student at Inver Hills Community College. He was there from 1995 to 1999 before transferring to Metropolitan State University where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in law enforcement in 2006.

On June 25, 2021, Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22½ years in prison by a judge in the Minnesota Fourth Judicial District Court after he was tried and convicted for the unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter of George Floyd. He was initially incarcerated at the Oak Park Heights prison following the sentence handed down by the state of Minnesota.

After he pled guilty to federal charges of violating Floyd’s civil rights, in December 2021, he was sentenced to 22½ years in federal prison. The sentence was handed down on July 7, 2022, and Chauvin has since been moved to the Federal Correctional Institution, Tucson, where he will serve the federal and state sentences concurrently. Several sources have confirmed that Derek Chauvin is the first white man in the state of Minnesota to be convicted for the murder of a black man.

May 25, 2020, was a relatively dark day for the Floyd family. It is a day that they, and probably the rest of the world, will not forget in a hurry. It is also a day that Derek Chauvin most likely wishes he never went to work. That was the day the world witnessed the brutal death of George Floyd at the hands of Derek Chauvin and three other Minneapolis Police Department officers.

The other three officers involved in the unsavory fiasco have since paid for their involvement in one way or the other, but as the primary protagonist of the uncivil treatment that led to the death of George Floyd, Derek Chauvin is paying the heaviest price for his actions. On that fateful day, Chauvin and his colleagues had arrested the late Floyd on suspicions of a fake $20 bill at a department store.

Despite Chauvin’s claims that Floyd had resisted arrest, security footage and the widely circulated videos of the incident showed that the former police officer’s accounts of the events were false.

The videos and the security footage showed the victim initially standing with his hands cuffed behind his back outside the police vehicle. Further footage showed him refusing to get into the vehicle amid several declarations that he could not breathe.

He later fell down and while he was on the floor with his hands cuffed behind his back, Chauvin knelt on his neck. While the knee-to-neck restraint move was a recommended procedure in some cases, the investigation showed that Floyd’s case was one of those times.

The videos also showed that the 47-year-old former police officer knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes whilst ignoring his pleas and vocal outcry about his struggles with breathing.

In a bizarre move, it was also revealed that two of the officers with Chauvin, one of whom was his field trainee, knelt on the back of the victim for most of that nine minutes plus. We also found out that for about two minutes before the end of that nine-minute plus interval, Floyd was no longer moving and had no pulse, essentially meaning that he had been killed by the pressure on his neck that cut off his air circulation.

The very next day after the whole incident had gone viral, Derek Chauvin and the other officers who were part of the fiasco were let go from their jobs. Minneapolis police chief, Medaria Arradondo classified the death as murder because he claimed that Chauvin had been well-schooled in the dangers of positional asphyxiation.

Just by taking a look at Derek Chauvin’s law enforcement career, one would not be far off in assuming that the Oakdale native had it coming. Prior to his firing, arrest, trial, and incarceration, Derek Chauvin had been on the Minneapolis Police Department payroll for nearly two decades, having joined in 2001.

During his time on the force, he received several commendations, including a medal of valor in 2006 for firing on a suspect who pointed a shotgun at him and his fellow officers, all of whom received a medal of valor. He bagged another one in 2008 after he and his partner had tackled a pistol-armed fleeing suspect to the floor.

One could argue that his commendations had made him reckless and arrogant because his official record shows that he had 18 misconduct complaints in his file. He was disciplined for two of those complaints and received several official letters of reprimand.

One particular incident stood out of all these complaints and that was the September 4, 2017 incident when Chauvin had viciously hit a 14-year-old black boy to the point where he required treatment.

He later pled guilty to violating the boy’s civil rights during his federal trial in the Floyd case, despite the state judge’s decision to prohibit it from being brought up to avoid prejudice. Derek Chauvin used up his rope of mercy when his actions led to the death of George Floyd in May 2020.

While the news of George Floyd’s murder and the public outcry that followed soon after was raging, most people knew that it was only a matter of time before the law enforcement authorities yield to the pressure of finding justice for the late George Floyd.

Derek Chauvin was arrested on May 29, 2020, and was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Those charges were amended to include unintentional second-degree murder while committing felony assault.

He was arrested alongside the three other officers namely Tou Thao, Thomas K. Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng and they all appeared in front of Judge Peter A. Cahill at the Hennepin County District Court. The case was set for hearing on September 11, 2020, and on that date, a trial date was set for March 8, 2021. The case ran from March 2021 to April 2021.

Before the trial was over the other three officers involved were released on $1 million bail each. Following that, Chauvin remained the only one in prison, and in the end, he was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison, a sentence that is 10 years more than the recommended sentence for his crimes.

The judge also took into account the prosecutors’ claims that Chauvin had displayed an unusual form of cruelty as well as the findings of the 12-man jury that included six white people and six people of color.

All members of the jury arrived at a guilty verdict after listening to the accounts of more than 45 eyewitnesses.

Another sore point for more than the 23 million people who tuned in to watch the live trial of Derek Chauvin was the fact that he never showed any remorse for his actions nor did he apologize to the members of the deceased family.

Following his conviction and sentencing, Chauvin was allowed to address the court. In his address, he told the judge that he understood the enormous political pressure he was under to send him away.

He then turned to his victim’s children to tell them that he wishes them well for the future and that they also have the proper guidance to live their lives. The reaction that followed his incarceration was one of immense satisfaction for the millions who had tuned in to watch the televised trial and also for Floyd’s family who felt they could breathe again.

The consequences of Derek Chauvin’s actions extended beyond the legal ramifications and the justice he received. He also had to deal with the ramifications of the divorce proceedings his wife of 10 years, Kellie May Xiong, initiated just a day before his arrest.

May Xiong also filed petitions to change her last name from Chauvin back to her maiden name of Xiong in a clear attempt to distance herself from the negative publicity that her husband’s actions had brought.

They did not have children together but she had two children from a previous marriage. In addition to the sentence he received, Derek Chauvin is permanently banned from owning firearms and/or explosives and is required to provide a DNA sample and register as a predatory offender.

Derek Chauvin’s federal plea arrangement includes a deal that would see him serve his state and federal sentences concurrently. The deal could ensure that he spends around 15 years in prison. Several sources have confirmed that he is eligible for release on parole around 2035 or 2036.

If those sources are to be believed and based on his age, Chauvin would be around 60 years old at the time. This would explain why his over 70-year-old mother made several attempts to dissuade the judge from handing down the sentence which could mean that she would never see him as a free man before she dies.

In the event that his attempt at an early release due to several factors such as good behavior and the like fails, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has scheduled his release date for the 18th of November, 2038, at which time, Derek Chauvin would be well over 60 years old.