{"id":504186,"date":"2026-02-28T00:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T00:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/504186\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T00:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T00:58:08","slug":"vancouver-police-officer-faces-questions-on-events-before-death-of-myles-gray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/504186\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver police officer faces questions on events before death of Myles Gray"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Protesters hold banners with a photograph of Myles Gray in Burnaby, B.C., in 2023. Gray died following a confrontation with several police officers in 2015.DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

One of the Vancouver officers who responded to the scene after a man was beaten by police in 2015 faced questioned of discrepancies between notes he took that day and how he describes the situation more than 10 years later.<\/p>\n

Constable Chris Bowater told a public hearing Friday that he saw Myles Gray in the \u201crecovery position\u201d on his side, unconscious but breathing. <\/p>\n

Under questioning from hearing counsel Brock Martland, Bowater said there were no officers on Gray\u2019s back. However, his notes include a reference to Gray regaining consciousness and \u201clifting members off back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martland asked Bowater to explain how Gray could be lifting police off his back if he was in the recovery position on his side. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt this time, after 10 and a half years, I don\u2019t remember why I wrote what I did, but nobody was on his back,\u201d the officer said.<\/p>\n

The inquiry, held by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, is looking into the actions of several Vancouver police officers who had a violent encounter with Gray before he died. Police were originally called to a complaint of a man who sprayed a woman with water from a garden hose.<\/p>\n

Bowater, who has experience as a paramedic, told the inquiry that if he had seen anyone on Gray\u2019s back in such a way that it would have interfered with his breathing, he would have moved them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not tell anybody to get off his back because nobody was on his back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowater told the inquiry on Thursday that Gray began grunting, swearing and spitting, as two officers restrained him.<\/p>\n

He said Gray made a \u201cfast twist\u201d out of the officer\u2019s grip and \u201cput himself face down into the grass\u201d<\/p>\n

When Gray stopped breathing, Bowater testified that he began chest compressions until he was relieved by a Burnaby firefighter.<\/p>\n

A coroner\u2019s inquest in 2023 heard that Gray was left with injuries including a fractured eye socket, a crushed voice box and ruptured testicles.<\/p>\n

Other testimony heard on Friday included that of Constable Brian London, who said he arrived on the scene after ambulances were already there.<\/p>\n

He said from what he heard broadcast over the police radio on his way, the situation sounded \u201cchaotic\u201d and like \u201cnothing was under control.\u201d<\/p>\n

London said when he arrived he saw Constable Kory Folkestad standing by an ambulance appearing to be in a daze and that Folkestad told him he had been punched. He said Constable Nick Thompson was holding a piece of gauze to the top of his head.<\/p>\n

London said he walked to where Gray was being held and saw him on his belly on the grass while one officer had a knee \u201cacross his bum or thighs.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Gray was \u201cgrumbling, growling. I could see he was kicking his feet.\u201d <\/p>\n

He told the hearing that he also spent time in an ambulance with Constable Hardeep Sahota and she appeared \u201cquite scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe she either almost started crying or crying a couple of times and she did make a couple statements that she felt like she was going to die,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Protesters hold banners with a photograph of Myles Gray in Burnaby, B.C., in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,55,883,913],"class_list":["post-504186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-vancouver","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}