Coroners inquest announced into 2015 death of Myles Gray

Seven years after Myles Gray was horrifically injured in a struggle with Vancouver police and died, coroners have finally been able to schedule a mandatory inquest into his death.

Under B.C.'s Coroners Act, inquests must be held whenever someone dies while detained by law enforcement – but the process in Gray's case was delayed while officials waited to learn if the officers involved would be criminally charged.

The process was further impacted by pandemic-related scheduling issues, but the B.C. Coroners Service announced Thursday that the public inquest will proceed on April 17.

Coroner's inquests are fact-finding exercises that hear evidence and sworn testimony from witnesses, but make no findings of legal responsibility. Once concluded, jurors can issue recommendations aimed at preventing future loss of life under similar circumstances.

Investigators have previously said Gray had an altercation with police on the afternoon of Aug. 13, 2015, and suffered an array of injuries that included broken bones, a dislocated jaw, and hemorrhaging in his brain and testicles, before going into cardiac arrest.

He was unconscious, handcuffed and hobbled – meaning his ankles were strapped together – when he died.

B.C.'s police watchdog, the Independent Investigations Office, spent years trying to get answers in Gray's death – at one point having to file a court petition to compel an officer's co-operation – before submitting a report to prosecutors for the consideration of charges in 2019.

Almost two years later, the Crown said the available evidence did not meet its charge assessment standards. The only witnesses to Gray's death were the seven officers on scene, and the B.C. Prosecution Service said they provided "incomplete and, in several respects, inconsistent accounts of the detail and sequence of events" surrounding the incident.

The Crown noted that six of the officers sustained injuries during the struggle, but that they were minor.

An autopsy was unable to determine Gray’s cause of death, but found it probable that he died from a number of factors that could have included his various injuries from police, the fact that he had a slightly enlarged heart, and the presence of kratom – a plant-based substance that can act as a stimulant – in his system.

The start of a separate conduct investigation by B.C.'s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner was delayed until the IIO's investigation was completed. CTV News has reached out to the OPCC for an update on the status of that file.

OPCC probes differ from those conducted by the IIO in a number of ways – most notably in that officers who are under investigation are compelled to co-operate and give statements. Police witnesses are required to co-operate with the IIO, but officers who might face charges have the right to refuse.