Vancouver officer tells Myles Gray hearing of ‘unnerving’ call for help

VANCOUVER — A Vancouver police officer has told a public hearing into the fatal arrest in 2015 of Myles Gray about an “unnerving” call for assistance from a colleague who had encountered the man.

Const. Beau Spencer says he knew Const. Hardeep Sahota and her tone of voice on the radio call raised immediate concern, while an “animalistic roar” he later heard as he and his partner headed to the scene was like nothing he had ever heard on a police radio.

Spencer is among seven Vancouver officers facing a public hearing set off by B.C.’s Police Complaint Commissioner into whether they committed misconduct during the confrontation.

He says in his second day of testimony that he and his partner were “quite anxious” to get to the scene, as radio calls from there “continued to escalate.”

He says another call came in when three officers were on the scene, and it did not sound like the person they were dealing with was “under control” and this was “very concerning.”

No charges have been laid over Gray’s death, which a 2023 coroner’s inquest ruled was a homicide, a term that does not assign legal blame.

The commissioner’s notice of public hearing said an earlier disciplinary process had dismissed misconduct allegations, but the discipline authority found the process “strangely lopsided” and had to decide the case despite “discrepancies and inconsistencies in statements made by (Vancouver Police Department) members.”

The earlier inquest heard Gray was left with injuries that included a fractured eye socket, crushed voice box and ruptured testicles, while a paramedic said Gray’s bruising was so severe, he initially thought Gray was not a white man.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2026.

The Canadian Press