BURST
Two witnesses testified Tuesday that Myles Gray was acting erratically on the day he was beaten by police and died more than 10 years ago.
Andrea Pilgrim, a library technician, told the hearing that she saw Gray near a bus stop and that he had taken off his shirt and tank top. It appeared he was mumbling, although she was far enough away that she couldn’t hear what he was saying. She said his behaviour was peculiar and had no idea what he was doing.
“Something was just not right with him,” she said.
Gray, 33, died in 2015 after being beaten and subdued by officers shortly after they were called to a report of an agitated man who had sprayed a woman with water from a garden hose near the Burnaby-Vancouver border.
He suffered injuries including a ruptured testicle and fractures of his eye socket, nose, voice box and ribs. He lost consciousness while he was in handcuffs and died.
Pilgrim said she wouldn’t approach Gray because of his erratic behaviour and because of his size, which she described as muscular and athletic. She thought he didn’t look like a drug addict and wondered if he was on steroids.
She testified she was concerned about whether he was going to get on a bus in his agitated state.
“I thought for sure if he was waiting for a bus or the bus attended or arrived, he would have had a few choice words to say to the bus driver,” she testified.
Asked if she thought he looked angry, she replied that he seemed more bothered or frustrated.
Pilgrim was the second witness on Day 2 of the hearing, called by Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner Prabhu Rajan, to review the conduct of the seven VPD officers involved in the beating of the man.
Also called to testify was the son of the woman soaked with a hose. Muhammed Reza said Gray was swearing, saying vulgar words and told his mother she was hot, and then mumbled words that were incoherent.
He was concerned that Gray was either unwell or on drugs and would come over the fence and into their yard but he never did.
“I told my mom to go inside because I was worried for her,” he said, adding that’s when he called 911 because he was afraid Gray would hurt someone in the neighbourhood.
Reza testified that a police woman arrived after the call and drove her vehicle to speak with Gray. Reza said he followed on foot at a distance to see what was happening.
He said the police officer got out of her vehicle in the area of Joffre Avenue and Marine Drive but after interacting with Gray she quickly got back in her car. He assumed she called for backup because shortly after he heard sirens and more police officers showed up.
After the officers arrived, he described hearing several “painful” screams. He said the second scream was the loudest and a third scream sounded very faint. He said then an ambulance arrived.
Reza told the hearing that at the time he was considering becoming a police officer but because of what happened to Gray he changed his mind about the profession.
On Monday, the first day of the public hearing, Gray’s mother testified that her son owned a successful Sechelt floral greens company and liked weightlifting, mountain biking and hockey. He owned a condo in Sechelt and one in Vancouver. His mom also said Gray had snapped in the past because he had bipolar disorder.
Retired B.C. Supreme Court justice Elizabeth Arnold-Bailey is the adjudicator who will decide if the officers committed misconduct. All of them, five in-person and two through their lawyers, denied the allegations on Monday.
The hearing, being held at the University of B.C.’s Robson Square campus, is expected to last 10 weeks.
In 2023, a police disciplinary hearing examined allegations that the officers “intentionally or recklessly used unnecessary force” and that six out of seven officers failed to make or provide notes. In October 2024, the report by Delta Police Chief Neil Dubord cleared the officers — Kory Folkestad, Eric Birzneck, Derek Cain, Josh Wong, Beau Spencer, Hardeep Sahota and Nick Thompson.
But the OPCC noted Dubord said the process was “lopsided” and acknowledged there was limited evidence, and that there were discrepancies and inconsistencies in the statements of the officers. There was also no cross-examination of the five officers who testified.
Following the disciplinary hearing report, the Gray family requested a public hearing.
With files from Kim Bolan and Cheryl Chan