Aug. 13 will mark one year since an altercation with seven Vancouver police officers in Burnaby resulted in the death of 33-year-old Sechelt resident Myles Gray, and his family is still searching for answers.
“We know nothing and it’s been a year,” Myles’ mother Margie told Coast Reporter this week.
Margie said the only parts of what happened on Aug. 13, 2015 that are clear to the family are that Myles informed a woman in Burnaby that she shouldn’t be watering her lawn during drought conditions, the woman called police, and shortly after police arrived, Myles died in a wooded area nearby.
There were no witnesses to the altercation with police and Myles’ exact cause of death has yet to be determined.
The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) has been investigating since last year but hasn’t released a final report yet. The delay is likely due to staff turnover and the need for more testing, Margie said.
“They couldn’t derive from the forensic autopsy as to the exact cause of death so they had to remove his brain [to do a neuropathology]. It’s pretty horrific,” Margie said.
“Other than being beaten to death, I guess they have to know specifically, was it his heart? Was it his lungs? … Was it blunt force trauma to the head? What exactly caused his death?”
While the IIO investigation drags on, the Grays have filed a civil lawsuit against the seven officers involved who have not yet been named but are identified as John Does 1 through 7 (as well as four other officers who dealt with the case but were not on scene when the altercation with Myles took place), the Vancouver Police Board, the Vancouver Police Department and the City of Vancouver.
The city was named in the lawsuit as being “statutorily responsible and vicariously liable” for the acts of the officers and the police board.
The lawsuit alleges “some or all of the seven officers beat the deceased to death by inflicting massive physical traumas upon him through repeated grievous, violent assaults and batteries, including after they had detained and restrained him.”
In a response to the civil claim filed in April, the City of Vancouver denied all facts submitted by the Grays; however, none of the other parties named in the lawsuit have filed their responses yet.
Margie said her lawyer is looking at “next steps” and plans to meet with the family in September to talk about advancing the case.
In the meantime Margie has started a Justice for Myles Facebook page where she keeps the community updated on the case and also brings attention to similar cases across Canada. She has created Justice for Myles bumper stickers and is in the beginning stages of setting up a website as well to keep Myles’ case front and centre in the community’s mind.
There’s also a Justice for Myles GoFundMe account that has raised over $22,000 to date for legal expenses the Gray family will incur as their lawsuit moves forward.
On Aug. 13 Myles’ family and friends will be holding a memorial for him on the beach near his family’s cabin in Sechelt and Margie asks anyone who wants to attend to private message her through the Justice for Myles Facebook page for the address.
People who want a bumper sticker can get one by contacting Margie through Facebook or through email at [email protected]
Margie would also appreciate any offers of time or expertise with setting up the website.
