Officer testifies he resuscitated Myles Gray before he died, inquest hears

WARNING: This story contains details of violence.

Vancouver Police Const. Derek Cain testified he resuscitated Myles Gray once during the fight to bring him into custody, but was unable to do it again when Gray stopped breathing for a second and final time. 

Cain is the seventh VPD officer to take the stand at the coroner's inquest into the death of the 33-year-old Sechelt, B.C., man over seven years ago. Gray, who was unarmed, was killed in a confrontation with multiple police officers in a wooded backyard on Joffre Avenue near Marine Drive.

Cain said when he arrived in the backyard, he witnessed Const. Josh Wong and Const. Eric Berznick "grappling" with Gray facedown on the ground. He said when he attempted a wrist lock on Gray — bending his wrist at an extreme angle to inflict maximum pain in order to gain compliance — it had no effect.

"I'm not the strongest guy in the world but I'm six feet, 200 lbs, and I was using as much force as I could and he pulled away like it was nothing," said Cain.

Cain testified he saw Gray lift himself and another officer on his back off the ground during the struggle, exhibiting "superhuman strength," a phrase used by officers who previously testified at the hearing. Moments later, he said, Gray also lifted him. 

"I was in disbelief ... I was being tossed around like a doll," he said.

Cain said he delivered between two and four knee strikes to Gray's left upper arm as hard as he could to again try to inflict pain to gain control. It was around this point in the fight that Gray was put into double handcuffs, he said, meaning one set of handcuffs on each wrist that were then linked at his back. 

Cain, a former paramedic, said he felt Gray was exhibiting signs of "excited delirium" that required immediate medical attention and narcotic sedation. He said he called for advanced life support (ALS) paramedics, who are able to give sedation.

With four officers now restraining Gray on the ground, Cain testified he heard Gray exhale all the air in his lungs and saw his face turn a "deep red, almost purplish colour." 

"I knew at that time he had stopped breathing," said Cain. "I performed a vigorous sternal rub, with my knuckles — I rubbed them on his sternum, the middle of his chest, as hard as I could in hopes that would trigger his breathing reflex to start again and thankfully after a few seconds he did."

Officers moved Gray into a more open area of the yard, Cain said, where he again stopped breathing. 

"I attempted another sternal rub and it had no effect. And Mr. Gray's body was limp." 

Cain said after being checked at a hospital he went back to Vancouver Police headquarters on Cambie Street, where a a senior union official instructed him not to make notes about the incident.  

He testified he doesn't recall noticing any blood or injuries on Gray, and doesn't recall seeing any of his colleagues perform a choke hold or "vascular neck restraint."

Gray became the subject of two calls to police before he died after he wandered into the southeast Vancouver neighbourhood, swore at a woman and sprayed her with a garden hose as she watered plants outside her co-op building on Aug. 13, 2015.

According to an earlier report from the B.C. Prosecution Service, officers restrained Gray's arms and legs, punched, kicked and kneed him, pepper-sprayed him and struck him with a baton.

His list of injuries — including a fractured voice box, several broken bones and a ruptured testicle — was so extensive that forensic experts have never been able to pinpoint a cause of death. 

No one except for the police saw what happened that day. In December 2020, the Crown announced that none of the officers would be criminally charged, in part because of the lack of witnesses.

The coroner's inquest into Gray's death continues next week with testimony from more Vancouver Police officers. It is scheduled to conclude April 28. Disciplinary hearings for the officers have been postponed until after the inquiry.