Protesters hold banners with a photograph of Myles Gray, before the start of a coroner's inquest into his death, in Burnaby, B.C., on April 17, 2023.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Seven Vancouver police officers will soon face a public disciplinary hearing over their involvement in the fatal beating of a 33-year-old man while he was being arrested during a mental-health crisis nearly a decade ago.
In 2015, Myles Gray died on the lawn of a property just east of Vancouver after police were called to respond to a complaint about a man behaving erratically. A subsequent investigation by B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office, which probes cases where police kill or seriously harm members of the public, found there there were grounds to charge some of the officers with manslaughter, aggravated assault and assault causing bodily harm.
No charges were ever laid. A coroner’s inquest concluded Mr. Gray’s death was a homicide. The officers were also not disciplined after a separate probe by the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner. The proceedings of that probe were held behind closed doors.
On Wednesday, Police Complaints Commissioner Prabhu Rajan called a public hearing to reassess the case so a retired judge can make sure “the best available evidence has been gathered, tested, and considered before a final decision is made” on any workplace discipline. This is the final step of the OPCC disciplinary process.
The probe will examine allegations that the seven officers intentionally or recklessly used unnecessary force against Mr. Gray and that six of them also neglected their duties by failing to take proper notes or submit the required reports in a timely way after his death.
The officers may decide not to testify and face the prospect of being cross-examined, but the judge can view that in a negative light, according to provincial law.
“The alleged misconduct in this case is serious and connected to a tragic loss of life, and there is meaningful uncertainty as to what happened,” Mr. Rajan stated in a news release.
In 2020, the BC Prosecution Service announced it would not lay criminal charges against any of the officers because of the “incomplete” and “inconsistent” accounts given by officers to investigators probing the death. The prosecution service concluded there was no reasonable prospect for conviction.
Last year, a coroner’s inquest was held that did not determine guilt or legal liability but found Mr. Gray suffered a broken nose, eye socket, rib and voice box, as well as brain bleeding and a ruptured testicle before his death, which a jury classified as a homicide.
During the inquest, the officers that testified all characterized their response as chaotic, and they said they were without a clear leader in the moment. None of them could clearly recall the punches, kicks, baton strikes and two chokeholds their colleagues used on Mr. Gray. Only one testified to noticing any injuries to him.
This past October, an adjudicator declined to discipline the seven officers in a separate probe by the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner, which investigates serious misconduct allegations among the handful of municipal forces operating across B.C.
Mr. Rajan noted in his reasons for calling the new hearing that the adjudicator, the former chief of the Delta police, lamented the current rules for OPCC investigations are “strangely lopsided.” For example, Mr. Rajan pointed out, the provincial Police Act allows the officers facing discipline to choose who can testify, which resulted in multiple witnesses with relevant evidence not being called. The adjudicator noted only five of the members testified and gave “relatively brief evidence” and none of them were tested through cross-examination.
A public hearing will allow for the officers to be questioned in a process more akin to a trial, Mr. Rajan said.
The Vancouver Police Union did not respond to requests to comment on news of the public hearing Wednesday.
Constable Tania Visintin, a spokesperson for the Vancouver Police Department, said in a statement Wednesday that the multiple investigations into the fatal arrest have “taken far too long – almost a decade – and have caused significant stress on everyone involved, and their families.”
Constable Visintin said her department had fulfilled the recommendations from the jury at the coroner’s inquest, namely by starting a pilot project for body cameras earlier this year. She also said the VPD is ensuring officers meet provincial standards to keep up to date on their de-escalation and crisis intervention training as well as completing training at the local police academy.
Mike Easson, Mr. Gray’s brother-in-law, welcomed the news of a public inquiry Wednesday and said the family, which is pursuing a civil suit over the death, was disappointed by the OPCC investigation and the ability of the officers to give brief testimony.
“This is a huge case and not much came of it,” he said from the flower and evergreen business on the Sunshine Coast that he and his wife took over from Mr. Gray after his death. “We’re nine years on now.”