Protesters hold banners with a photograph of Myles Gray, who died following a confrontation with several police officers in 2015, before the start of a coroner's inquest into his death, in Burnaby, B.C., on Monday, April 17, 2023. The British Columbia coroner's inquest into the death of Myles Gray has heard from the first non-police witness who was at the scene where the 33-year-old died. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
BURNABY, B.C. – Myles Gray had bruising around his eyes and along the sides of his neck when he stopped moving in the minutes after a beating by Vancouver police, a retired fire captain told the British Columbia coroner’s inquest into the 33-year-old’s death.
Former Burnaby, B.C., firefighter John Campbell testified that he noticed the injuries after Gray stopped struggling and police turned him over to perform CPR.
Gray died after the beating by several officers in August 2015 that left him with injuries including a fractured eye socket, a crushed voice box and ruptured testicles.
When Campbell first arrived at the location where police had been struggling to handcuff Gray, he said an officer told him to wait while the scene was secured.
The officer assured him that police would monitor Gray’s condition, he told the inquest on Tuesday.
It’s common for police to instruct firefighters to wait a short distance away if there’s still violence at the scene of an arrest, he said.
When he did see Gray, Campbell said the man was lying on his stomach, handcuffed with a strap around his legs, but he was still struggling as officers told him to stay down.
When Gray suddenly became motionless, Campbell testified that police took the handcuffs off and rolled him over to begin first aid, before firefighters and later paramedics took over and performed CPR.
Campbell told the inquest that first responders tried to revive Gray for about 40 minutes until he was pronounced dead at the scene.
He agreed with a lawyer for the police department that he believed Gray’s breathing was not impaired in the moments before he stopped struggling.
The retired fire captain’s testimony came after 14 police officers explained their roles to the inquest jury, from the first to respond to the initial 911 to those who attended to a call for backup and joined in the struggle to handcuff Gray.
Police were originally called about an agitated man who had sprayed a woman with a garden hose.
Campbell testified that the only information he received before getting to the scene with other firefighters was that there had been a “bear-spray incident.”
Personnel from the Burnaby fire department, BC Emergency Health Services, the Independent Investigations Office and others are expected to testify later this week.
An inquest jury isn’t able to make findings of legal responsibility but it may make recommendations to prevent similar deaths in the future.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 25, 2023.
