Vancouver officer testifies Myles Gray was strongest man he ever encountered
Const. Beau Spencer told a misconduct hearing he felt physically unable to restrain Gray during the 2015 arrest.
VANCOUVER · A Vancouver police officer told a public hearing Friday that Myles Gray was the strongest man he had ever encountered during his 15-year career. Const. Beau Spencer described his role in the fatal arrest of Gray on a Burnaby street on Aug. 13, 2015. He is one of seven officers facing a misconduct hearing called by B.C.'s Police Complaint Commissioner. Spencer testified that he felt physically unable to restrain Gray, a situation he had never experienced before.
Spencer said he was having ice cream with his partner when they heard a distressed radio call from Const. Hardeep Sahota requesting assistance. He said he knew Sahota and her tone of voice raised immediate concern. As they drove to the scene near the Vancouver boundary, Spencer said he heard an "animalistic roar" over the radio unlike anything he had heard before. Upon arrival, he found other officers who looked "exhausted" from struggling to control Gray.
The officer testified that he and Const. Joshua Wong tried to get Gray's arm behind his back to apply handcuffs but could not move it. "I needed to up my level of force," Spencer said, explaining he then delivered three or four "closed-fist strikes" as hard as he could to Gray's shoulder. "Each time there was nothing … [his arm] was not moving at all which was incredibly concerning for me," he told the hearing. Spencer, who is over six feet tall and weighs more than 90 kilograms, said he held onto the arm "with all my might."
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"This was the strongest man I'd dealt with at that point and the strongest man I've dealt with" in policing, Spencer said. He described the incident as the "biggest moment" of his life and said it was very traumatizing. Spencer said Gray later lost consciousness but woke up exhibiting a "crazy change of behaviour." "He looked at me and said 'what's going on,'" Spencer recalled, saying the moment of lucidity gave him a sense of relief.
That moment was brief, Spencer said, before Gray went into a "rage" again and threw him onto his back. When Gray fell unconscious a second time, Spencer said he went from "pure strength, pure power, to no flex in his muscles" and went limp. Spencer then stepped back from the scene, believing he would be in the way of paramedics and firefighters who had arrived. Gray died at the scene.
At the end of his testimony, Spencer addressed Gray's family directly. "I know there's no words that I can say to you to take the pain away," he said in a shaky voice. "I can't imagine losing a member of my family like you did. The intention of us was not to end it this way, and it was very tragic." Earlier in the day, Spencer had said there was nothing he would change about his use of force during the arrest.
No criminal charges have been laid in Gray's death. A coroner's inquest last year ruled the manner of death was a homicide, a finding that does not imply legal responsibility. The hearing was told that an earlier disciplinary process dismissed misconduct allegations, but the authority found that process "strangely lopsided" and noted "discrepancies and inconsistencies" in officer statements. Spencer also described the immediate aftermath of the arrest. He said officers were called to Vancouver police headquarters where he learned he was under investigation by the Independent Investigations Office. He testified that a union representative told officers, "don't write anything down, don't write notes, we will tell you when to write something." Spencer said he thought this was odd but later wrote a statement on his personal laptop months after the incident.
Another officer, Const. Eric Birzneck, testified earlier this week, likening Gray's strength to "the Hulk" and saying he seemed "impervious to pain." The public hearing into the officers' conduct began in January and has faced several delays. Adjudicator Elizabeth Arnold-Bailey adjourned the proceedings until Nov. 16.
With files from The Canadian Press, CBC News and The Globe and Mail