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 five jury members at the British Columbia coroner's inquest have begun their deliberations after hearing 11 days of testimony about a beating by Vancouver police officers and the death of Myles Gray.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
BURNABY, B.C. – The jury in the British Columbia coroner’s inquest into the police beating death of Myles Gray has recommended that the Vancouver Police Department expedite its use of body-worn cameras for all officers.
The five-member jury began deliberating Monday at the end of 11 days of testimony about the 33-year-old man’s death in August 2015.
The jury found Gray died by homicide, a death due to injury intentionally inflicted by another person, but coroner Larry Marzinzik told jury members that it was a neutral term and doesn’t imply fault or blame.
The jury also recommended to Vancouver’s police chief that his department review and enhance the crisis de-escalation and containment training that its officers receive.
Several police officers told the inquest that Gray appeared not to feel pain as they hit him with their batons, punched him in the face, kneed him and held him to the ground.
A forensic pathologist who preformed the autopsy on Gray’s body told the inquest last week that Gray died of a cardiac arrest complicated by police actions, pointing specifically to “neck compression,” blunt force injuries, the use of pepper spray, forcing Gray onto his stomach and handcuffing him behind his back.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2023.
