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. – A retired fire captain says 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 police.
Former Burnaby, B.C., fire captain John Campbell told the coroner’s inquest into Gray’s death that he saw the injuries after police turned over the 33-year-old man to perform CPR.
Gray died after a beating by Vancouver police in August 2015 that left him with injuries including a fractured eye socket, a crushed voice box and ruptured testicles.
Campbell says when he arrived at the location where police had been struggling to handcuff Gray an officer told him to wait while the scene was secured.
When he did see Gray, Campbell says he was lying on his stomach, handcuffed, but was still struggling as officers told him to stay down.
Campbell told the inquest that when Gray suddenly stopped moving, police took off the handcuffs and rolled him over to begin first aid, before firefighters took over and performed CPR until he was pronounced dead about 40 minutes later.
Campbell 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 was the first witness to testify who wasn’t a Vancouver police officer.
The inquest has heard from 14 officers, from the first to respond to the initial 911 call about an agitated man who had sprayed a woman with a garden hose, to those who attended to a call for backup and joined in the struggle to handcuff Gray.
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.
