BURST
Two Vancouver police officers involved in the fatal arrest of Myles Gray in Burnaby were hurt during the violent takedown, one with a possible jaw injury and another with a bleeding head wound, a public hearing into his 2015 death heard Wednesday.
The details came out during testimony of RCMP Sgt. Robert Nash, the officer who wrote a 278-page report in 2022 after a police investigation into possible police misconduct by the seven officers during the call about Gray’s behaviour on Aug. 13, 2015, near Joffre Avenue and Marine Drive near the Vancouver-Burnaby boundary.
The inquest was called at Gray’s family’s request by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner after the seven officers were cleared of misconduct in 2024 after an internal disciplinary hearing.
Radio communications between the officers and dispatch were played at the inquest Wednesday.
The first officer to arrive, Const. Hardeep Sahota, had asked for immediate cover because of Gray’s aggressive behaviour toward her, Nash said in response to questions by the inquiry’s lawyer, Brad Hickford.
Adjudicator Elizabeth Arnold-Bailey, a retired B.C. Supreme Court judge, will decide if the officers committed misconduct. All of them, five in-person and two through their lawyers, denied the allegations at the start of the inquiry.
Nash also explained after the tape was played further that one of the attending officers, Const. Josh Wong, could be heard saying that the “male was still fighting,” at least three times.
It was also Wong who reported later that the officers had him in custody, Nash told the inquest.
After that, Const. Eric Birzneck on the radio said the male was unresponsive and not fighting, said Nash.
And Const. Derek Cain said: “if this guy comes to, we’re going to need sedation protocol.”
Const. Kory Folkestad said two police constables had been injured, one with a possible jaw injury and the other bleeding from his forehead, Nash said.
Nash is the first police officer to testify before the inquest, which is on its third day and is scheduled to last 10 weeks and to hear from 33 witnesses. The officers can’t be compelled to testify.
Gray, 33, died that day after being beaten and subdued by the officers shortly after a 911 call about an agitated man who had sprayed a woman with a garden hose.
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.
The son of a woman soaked with a hose, Muhammed Reza, told the inquest on Day 2 that Gray used vulgarities, told his mother she was hot and mumbled incoherently.
Reza also testified an officer got out of her cruiser to speak with Gray and then quickly returned to the car, soon after other officers arrived.
On the first day, Gray’s mother testified her son owned a successful Sechelt floral greens company and liked weightlifting, mountain biking and hockey. He owned a condo in Sechelt and in Vancouver. His mom also said Gray had snapped in the past because he had bipolar disorder.
In 2024, Delta Police Chief Neil Dubord in a report about the disciplinary hearing cleared the officers — Sahota, Wong, Birzneck, Cain, Folkestad, Beau Spencer and Nick Thompson — of any misconduct.
But the OPCC noted Dubord found the process “lopsided,” with limited evidence and discrepancies and inconsistencies in the officers’ statements. None of the five officers who testified were cross-examined.