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<\/p>\n\u201cAt this time, after ten 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
\t<\/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
Const. Kyle Dent testified Friday that he arrived in the area about two minutes before Gray stopped breathing and that he held his left elbow.<\/p>\n
Dent said Gray was on his stomach with two sets of handcuffs and was rocking back and forth and breathing heavily.<\/p>\n
He described Gray as \u201cincredibly strong,\u201d and said he had enough strength to lift up even as the officer applied downward pressure. <\/p>\n
That went on until it \u201cjust abruptly stopped,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Dent said he couldn\u2019t say with confidence whether any of the other officers on scene were putting pressure on Gray\u2019s head, neck, or upper back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can say when I was looking at his upper body that nobody was on it. But after I left and then held the elbow I didn\u2019t focus on any other body parts until the time that he had to be moved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Dent told the inquiry he is familiar with \u201cpositional asphyxiation,\u201d where someone can be put in a position where they struggle to breath. <\/p>\n
He said if he saw something concerning that day he would have said so or made note of it, but nothing he saw suggested that problem.<\/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 Const. 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 Const. Kory Folkestad standing by an ambulance appearing to be in a daze and that Folkestad told him he had been punched. He said Const. 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 Const. 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
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2026<\/p>\n
Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAt this time, after ten and a half years, I don\u2019t remember why I wrote what I did,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[879,49,48,2467,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,44,2464,2465,2466,82,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-504747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vancouver","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-central-vancouver-island","12":"tag-nanaimo","13":"tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","14":"tag-nanaimo-news","15":"tag-nanaimo-news-now","16":"tag-nanaimonewsnow","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-oceanside","19":"tag-parksville","20":"tag-qualicum","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-vancouver"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504747","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=504747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}