The inquest heard Gray’s samples were destroyed six months after his death, but they could have been used to provide greater detail about any substances that may have been in his blood. The third recommendation was aimed at the Provincial Health Services Authority, suggesting the CEO review its policies on keeping toxicology samples from people whose deaths are under investigation. “We will take some time to review the recommendations before speaking further.”īefore the jury returned with its verdict on Monday, the inquest heard from Shelley Horne, the Vancouver police superintendent overseeing personnel services, who said she expects there will be a pilot project by this fall to equip 80 to 100 front-line officers with body cameras for up to nine months before the results are evaluated. The Vancouver Police Department said in a statement it appreciates the work done by the coroner’s jury and everyone who participated in the inquest. Several officers testified that Gray was behaving in an “animalistic” way, and he appeared not to feel pain as they hit him with their batons and knees, punched him in the face and wrestled him to the ground. In particular, the jury suggested adding more frequent in-person and online training focused on how to make ongoing health and safety assessments and reduce risk to someone experiencing a mental health disturbance. “In the context of someone who’s extremely fatigued, (whose) body is fully ramped up … I think these issues would be enough to tip him over the edge,” Orde said. He told the inquest Gray died of a cardiac arrest complicated by police actions, pointing specifically to “neck compression,” blunt force injuries, the use of pepper spray, forcing Gray onto his stomach and handcuffing him behind his back. Gray’s extreme physical exertion while police struggled to restrain him was also among the “perfect storm” of factors that led to his death, Orde said. He said “acute behavioural disturbance” is a better description for what Gray was experiencing on the day he died. Matthew Orde, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Gray’s body, testified last week that on occasion, it had been thought “so-called excited delirium syndrome” could result independently in death, but analysis of the published data suggests that’s “quite unlikely.” “We heard it from the forensic pathologist and the jury endorsed and accepted that.”ĭr. We know what the cause of death was,” Donaldson said at the conclusion of the inquest. “From my perspective, the jury’s verdict puts an end to that. Several officers told the inquest they believed Gray had been experiencing “excited delirium,” characterizing it as a life-threatening medical emergency. Ian Donaldson, a lawyer for Gray’s family, told the media the homicide finding is significant because the police position had always been that Gray died of natural causes. The jury forewoman said the verdict was not unanimous, with four of the five members agreeing. The jury found Gray died by homicide, a death due to injury intentionally inflicted by another person, although coroner Larry Marzinzik advised the jury before it began its deliberations that it was a neutral term that doesn’t imply fault or blame. One paramedic told the inquest he arrived at the scene and saw bruising so severe, he initially thought Gray was not a white man. Gray, who was 33, died in August 2015 after the beating that left him with injuries including ruptured testicles and fractures in his eye socket, nose, voice box and rib. The five-member jury made just three recommendations in its verdict on Monday, but the suggestion for body cameras equipped with audio-recording capabilities was at the top of their list. The jury in the British Columbia coroner’s inquest into the death of Myles Gray after a beating by Vancouver police nearly eight years ago is recommending the department expedite its use of body-worn cameras for all patrol officers.
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