Police dispatch audio played at public hearing into death of Myles Gray

The public hearing into the death of Myles Gray heard police dispatch audio on Wednesday, then faced an unusual delay.

Myles Gray, the man who died following a violent brawl with seven Vancouver police officers in a Burnaby backyard in August of 2015, can be heard yelling and screaming on police radio dispatch recordings.

The officers involved are the only surviving witnesses to the confrontation—and their police radio dispatches provide the only documented evidence of what unfolded over a span of about 10 minutes in the yard.

The recordings were played at the public hearing into Gray’s death, as an RCMP member who conducted a Police Act investigation into the incident described what was taking place during each radio transmission.

Const. Hardeep Sahota, the first VPD officer on scene that day, approached Gray after a 911 caller reported he had sprayed a woman with a garden hose.

Sahota quickly called for backup.

“Can we just hurry up cover here?” she said over the radio. “He’s just acting a little aggressive.”

Moments later, Const. Kory Folkestad and Const. Eric Birzneck arrived.

Folkestad quickly told dispatch that Gray had made his way up a wooded slope into a backyard.

“He’s gone up into housing here,” he said on the transmission. “We are with 63. We’re just going to go up there and challenge.”

In announcing it would not pursue manslaughter and assault charges against the officers involved, the B.C. Prosecution Service said “contradictions between officers’ accounts in key areas are incapable of resolution,” and it could not determine a coherent narrative of events.

An autopsy revealed Gray suffered a broken nose, jaw and orbital bone, had hemorrhaging on the brain, a crushed larynx and ruptured testicles.

Only the officers themselves know what actually happened in the secluded backyard, but the dispatch recordings reveal the level of tension and conflict as the violence unfolded.

“Charlie six-three. Problem here. He’s not in custody at all,” Sahota says in one transmission, as one of her colleagues can be heard in the background.

“Hey! Hey! Hey!” the other officer said.

The officers are then interrupted by loud unintelligible yelling and screaming.

Sgt. Robert Nash, the RCMP investigator, told the hearing it was Gray who was yelling and screaming.

Four additional officers would soon arrive.

By the time the brawling stopped, Gray was in handcuffs with his feet bound together.

As officers continued to hold him down for several more minutes, he would lose consciousness and eventually be pronounced dead in the yard.

Firefighters and paramedics were directed to treat VPD officers with minor injuries first – and there was a delay in medical personnel being allowed by police to begin resuscitation efforts on Gray.

In a strange turn of events during the public hearing’s afternoon session, the 13 lawyers involved in the hearing met behind closed doors with media and the public being excluded from the room.

Whatever was discussed took the entire afternoon and nobody outside the room was told what transpired.

Thursday’s scheduled session has now been cancelled, and the public hearing will resume on Monday.