Myles Gray had no definitive cause of death, but likely died of cardiac arrest: pathologist

The forensic pathologist who performed an autopsy on Myles Gray in the days after he died following a beating by Vancouver police officers said Monday that there was no single, definitive cause of death.

Rather, Dr. Matthew Orde said he identified multiple factors that probably contributed to Gray’s death in August 2015, adding the context in which the 33-year-old died was crucial to informing his conclusions.

Orde told the public hearing into Gray’s death that he found it was most likely explained by cardiopulmonary arrest, complicated by police actions to restrain the man, who had shown signs of “acute behavioural disturbance” before he died.

Orde said the police actions involved pepper spray, blunt-force injuries, neck compression and handcuffing behind the back in a forced, face-down positioning.

It’s difficult to weigh which factors may have played the greater role, he said.

“In essence I’m saying that he, his heart stopped beating, that he stopped breathing, and I think that it came about as a complication of this scenario in which he found himself at the time he came to die,” including his restraint by police, Orde said.

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Orde said he noted that Gray was exhibiting features of acute behavioural disturbance “to address the fact that he seemed to have been acting bizarrely,” and that may have been a factor in bringing about the situation in which he died.

Police had originally been called to respond to a complaint about a man who sprayed a woman with water from her garden hose.

The hearing has heard Gray had earlier abandoned his work vehicle, and witnesses described seeing him waving his arms, shouting and removing his clothing.

The hearing called by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner of B.C. is looking into the actions of seven Vancouver officers in Gray’s death.

A police discipline authority cleared all the officers of misconduct in 2024.

However, police complaint commissioner Prabhu Rajan has said there was still “meaningful uncertainty as to what happened.”

During Monday’s hearing, Orde described the multiple injuries he saw during his examination of Gray’s body.

The injuries included bruising apparently caused by strikes from a rigid object, a fractured eye socket and nose, and possible dislocation of Gray’s jaw, Orde said.

There was also bleeding in Gray’s brain, Orde said. It was a small volume, “relatively minor,” he said, but it likely reflected blunt-force injury to Gray’s head.

In 2023, a B.C. coroner’s inquest heard Gray was left with injuries that included a crushed voice box and ruptured testicles.

The inquest found Gray’s death was a homicide, although coroner Larry Marzinzik told the jury the term is neutral and does not imply fault.

Orde also testified at the inquest, saying a “perfect storm” of factors led to Gray’s death, including his extreme exertion and the actions of police to restrain him.

He said he believed Gray’s body would have been working in overdrive in the struggle with police.

People who are forcibly restrained on their stomach are at greater risk of death, especially when their body has increased physiological demands, Orde said.