4 police officers involved in death of Myles Gray faced other brutality allegations, family learns

Four of the Vancouver police officers involved in the death of Myles Gray in 2015 were already under investigation because of an incident that left a man with a broken jaw just six weeks earlier, CBC News has learned.

In addition, one of the four officers is now awaiting a criminal trial for assault related to another arrest that seriously injured a cyclist in 2017.

Though Gray was killed more than seven years ago, his family only recently learned the names of all nine officers who were on the scene when he died.

His mother, Margie Gray, was furious when she learned about the officers' histories.

"They know the common denominators are out there, these violence-prone police, and yet they do nothing," she told CBC News.

"If these cops [had been] dealt with properly at the time, my son may well be alive."

B.C.'s police oversight agency forwarded a report to Crown in the case of Myles Gray in the belief the officers may have committed a crime — but in the case of the broken jaw, all four officers were cleared of wrongdoing.

Myles Gray was unarmed when he died in a Burnaby, B.C., backyard on Aug. 13, 2015. Gray, 33, was making a delivery for his Sechelt-based florist business when police were called after he confronted a South Vancouver homeowner for watering her lawn during that summer's extended drought.

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

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.

Those officers' connections to other incidents have come to light due to the advocacy of another mom, Carol DeBoer, who took action after she learned about Gray's death. 

"I just had this gut feeling about the situation, and that's when I reached out to Margie, thinking there's something wrong here," DeBoer said.

Her son Mitchell had been arrested in his apartment on June 28, 2015, for violating a no-contact order related to domestic violence.