A group of seven Vancouver police officers are denying allegations of abuse of authority and neglect of duty related to the 2015 death of Myles Gray after a violent altercation with officers while suffering a mental health crisis.
Five of the officers are present at the hearing in downtown Vancouver, with two absent but represented by lawyers.
However, it's not known if any of them will testify at the public hearing, which began on Monday and was called by British Columbia's Police Complaint Commissioner.
Gray's mother, Margaret Gray, is the first witness in the hearing that scheduled to last 10 weeks and comes more than 10 years after the death of her 33-year-old son, who was from Sechelt.
The seven members facing the allegations are constables Kory Folkestad, Eric Birzneck, Derek Cain, Josh Wong, Beau Spencer, Hardeep Sahota and Nick Thompson.
Cain and Folkestad are absent from the hearing before adjudicator Elizabeth Arnold-Bailey, a retired B.C. Supreme Court judge, for medical reasons.
Gray's family sought the hearing after a discipline authority cleared the seven officers of misconduct in 2024, but public hearing counsel Brad Hickford says the authority noted "shortcomings" in the discipline process.
Margaret Gray said in a statement last week she hopes the hearing reveals the full truth about her son's death, and why "accountability failed," after none of the officers involved in the fatal altercation were ever charged.
Myles Gray suffered injuries including ruptured testicles and fractures in his eye socket, nose, voice box and rib.
Lawyer Brian Smith, general counsel for the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, told reporters last week that it's unknown if any of the seven officers will testify, as they cannot be compelled to do so.
In 2023, a coroner's inquest ruled the death was a homicide, although coroner Larry Marzinzik told the jury the term is neutral and does not imply fault.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
