Former Team USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar has been stabbed multiple times in prison. In 2018, the disgraced physician was sentenced to life behind bars for sexually assaulting hundreds of young female gymnasts who were in his care over the years and has been serving his time at the Federal Correctional Complex Coleman in Central Florida.
Per The New York Post, Larry Nassar, 59, was stabbed twice in the neck, six times in the chest, and twice in the back on Sunday, July 9. He suffered a collapsed lung in the attack but according to Local 506 president Joe Rojas, he’s in stable condition.
“He’s lucky to be alive. If it wasn’t for the staff who were there, he wouldn’t be with us today,” Rojas said.
However, Rojas added that Larry Nassar has been stabbed in ways that “hit vital organs” and suffered “serious injuries,” so his condition could change at any time.
It’s unclear how or why the attack occurred given that Nassar is not in with the general prison population. Instead, he’s housed with other sex offenders and has never had an issue before now. That being said, severe understaffing in the unit made Rojas and his colleagues fear that a violent incident like this would happen.
An internal investigation into what happened and why is still ongoing, though a spokesperson for the FBI insisted that “no staff or other inmates were injured and at no time was the public in danger.”
Sarah Klein, Nassar’s first known victim, released a statement after news of the attack broke. In it, she called for prison staff to ensure Nassar was better protected so that he would have to continue serving his sentence and avoid “an easy out.”
“The assault on Nassar brings no peace to me personally or to the survivors I’ve spoken with today,” she said. “The incident forces us to vividly relive our abuse and trauma at the hands of Nassar and the institutions, including law enforcement, that protected him and allowed him to prey on children. I urge the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Prisons to see that Nassar is not allowed to escape his sentence and consequences of his horrible crimes.”
