Paramedic tells inquest he misjudged Myles Gray’s race because of severe bruising after police fight
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
A specialized life-support paramedic who tried to resuscitate the┬аunarmed man who died after being beaten by multiple Vancouver police officers nearly eight years ago has testified the bruising on the man’s skin was┬аso severe he was┬аinitially confused about the patient’s┬аrace.
Stephen Shipman told a coroner’s inquest on Tuesday that it took two attempts to intubate Myles Gray, 33, after he stopped breathing because his airway was swollen after the fight in a┬аBurnaby, B.C., backyard in 2015.
“He was beaten pretty bad,” said Shipman.┬а“I’m not trying to be rude, but …┬аI didn’t think he was a white guy. The first couple of looks I had on him were quite, like ‘Wow, this guy has dark skin,’ but it wasn’t the dark skin. It was the bruising.”
Shipman’s testimony and that of other paramedics were in contrast to earlier evidence from several police officers who said they couldn’t recall any visible injuries or blood on Gray.
Two paramedics who gave evidence before Shipman┬аbecame┬аemotional recalling the case.
“There’s certain calls that leave a mark on you, or you just have a hard time forgetting … a little bit like a scar,”┬аsaid Ross Mathieson, who was a paramedic for more than 35 years before retiring.
“There was that [officer’s expression], and a man lost his life,” he said, asked Tuesday why he had teared up.┬а“Both.”
Shipman said he responded to the scene after police requested an advanced life-support unit to sedate a patient. Police had voiced concern over their radios that┬аGray┬аwould continue to resist arrest if he regained consciousness, the inquest previously heard.
Gray┬аwent into cardiac arrest before Shipman arrived at the property on┬аJoffre Avenue near Marine Drive.
He┬аdied at the scene.
Police delayed firefighters’ access to Gray, crew testifies
Earlier Tuesday, four┬аfirefighters who were first on the scene from the Burnaby Fire Department told the inquest┬аpolice delayed┬аfirst responders’ access to the scene.
Retired Capt. John Campbell testified┬аthat police┬аtold them┬аto wait after the fire engine arrived. Another firefighter said an officer took them up to the yard, only to have the police who were with Gray turn them down.
“The officer that led us up to the top of the stairs announced to everyone on scene at the location that fire was here to assess the patient, and the response from one of the officers was, ‘Fire will not be assessing this patient at the present┬аtime because he’s still combative,'”┬аsaid Lt. Young Lee.
“So, we were told to not assess the patient … we pretty much sat at the top of the stairs while the officers and the patient were on the ground, and there was a struggle going on.”
Lee said he said he┬аcould see Gray┬аlying on his stomach, handcuffed, struggling against an┬аofficer on┬аhis head or neck, another on top of his torso, a third on his legs and a fourth holding the hobble tying his legs together.┬а
“At any time, were you┬аconcerned that Mr. Gray could not breathe┬аas the result of a police officer holding his head down to the ground?” a juror later asked.
“Yes,” Lee said.
“I think with anyone being in that condition underneath three guys, three people, and struggling┬атАФ┬аI would always have a concern for [that] possibility.”
Campbell┬аsaid he understood the officer’s┬аinstruction, or wait order, meant Gray wasn’t under control. He┬аtold the inquest officer assured him that police would monitor┬аGray.
Campbell added┬аit’s not uncommon for police to tell first responders to wait at a distance until a scene is safe.
The former captain said police first asked firefighters to tend to two officers,┬аone of whom was bleeding after a tree branch cut his┬аforehead and the other who’d been hit in the jaw.
Campbell, Lee, as well as┬аfirefighters Scott Frizzell and Travis Nagata,┬аsaid Gray had visible bruising and blood on his face. Three said the man’s injuries included two┬аblack eyes, which were referred to as┬а“raccoon eyes.”
“He was well restrained at the time I saw him,” said Frizzell.
An investigation report obtained by CBC News earlier this month said two of the four firefighters remembered Gray as still resisting arrest when they┬аwere told not to approach him after arriving, but the other two said Gray┬аwas lying┬аmotionless┬аbefore police turned him on his back and realized he wasn’t breathing.
The 278-page final report,┬аwritten as part of a separate investigation into police conduct, said all four firefighters reported seeing several officers holding Gray down while his┬аarms were handcuffed and his legs were hobbled.
Campbell said police took off the handcuffs, rolled Gray onto his back and started chest compressions when Gray suddenly stopped moving. He said firefighters and paramedics took over to start CPR.
Shipman said he had a 92 per cent success rate on the first attempt with intubating patients or inserting a tube to open an airway, but Gray’s case was “difficult because it was unusual anatomy due to swelling.”
The fire captain said first responders tried to revive Gray for roughly┬а40┬аminutes before he was pronounced dead.┬аHis injuries, which were too extensive for experts to determine a specific cause of death, included a broken eye socket, brain hemorrhaging and ruptured testicles.
The third paramedic who took the stand, Jeff Huchinson, said Tuesday police were “protective” over the scene and reluctant to provide details to paramedics who were asking about the fight as a way to inform treatment.
Shipman said he could not recall how many times he asked┬аpolice for information.
“I remember asking, and I remember getting a response,” he said.
14 officers testify during first week of inquest
Fourteen police officers who testified during the inquest have used similar language to describe Gray’s behaviour toward police during the struggle to restrain him.
They said Gray┬аwas aggressive, threatening, showing┬а“superhuman” strength and appearing to be in an “animalistic” state тАФ sweating, growling or roaring┬аat officers with words they couldn’t understand.
They also said Gray┬аdid not appear to “feel pain” and continued resisting after being pepper-sprayed, punched, kneed, kicked, struck with batons and placed in a chokehold.
Gray┬аhad been in Vancouver making a delivery to a florist’s supply shop as part of his Sechelt, B.C.-based business operations. The inquest has heard recordings from initial 911 calls reporting that an agitated man had sprayed a woman with a garden hose outside her home on Marine Drive.
Four police officers told the inquest they believed Gray was experiencing a condition called “excited delirium,” a term describing┬аa state of agitation and cited as an explanation for sudden, unexpected deaths during interactions with police.
Last week, presiding coroner Larry Marzinzik provided the jury with what he called a “cautionary note” about the term.
He said, to his knowledge,┬аmost pathologists don’t recognize the term as a cause of death. The coroner┬аasked the┬аjury to put┬аless weight on┬аevidence from┬аa layperson, like an officer.
A┬аmedical expert will speak to the term later in the inquest, as will┬аpersonnel from B.C.’s police watchdog.┬а
A coroner’s inquest does not make findings of legal responsibility, but the jury will make┬аrecommendations aimed at┬аpreventing similar deaths in the future.
