911 audio and police radio transmissions shed new light on what happened the day Miles Gray died after being beaten by several Vancouver police officers.
Witnesses have already testified that Gray was acting erratically that day, and the 911 calls confirm some of their observations.
Muhammed Reza called 911 to report that an unknown man had argued with Reza’s mother outside her home on Southeast Marine Drive.
“There’s one. He’s drunk. He just harassed my mother.” “He took a water hose and started spraying her for absolutely no reason.”
Reza describes a man who appears to be having a mental health crisis.
“He’s got his hands on his knees. He’s trying to pass out or something. I don’t know what’s going on with him,” Reza said.
At that point, the dispatcher asked if Reza believed the man needed an ambulance.
“He got up,” said Reza. “Honestly, I’m not sure at this point.”
Margie Gray, Miles’ mother, believes the situation might have turned out differently had passers-by and police shown more interest in her son.
“He was clearly in emotional distress. He needed care and compassion. Nobody cared about him that day,” she said.
Hadeep Sahota, the first police officer to speak with Constant Gray, said he was aggressive and threatening, so she retreated to the safety of a police vehicle and asked for backup.
Before the other officers arrived, Gray climbed a series of stairs and entered the residential yard.
“He rose to the residence here,” Konst. Cory Folkestad can be heard saying on a police radio transmission voice recording.
“We just stand up and try.”
Gray’s family made an exception for the use of the word challenge, saying it indicated that the police had no intention of trying to escalate the situation.
“Absolutely not. They didn’t even have a plan. They just ran there,” said Melissa Gray, Miles’ sister.
Police testified that Gray was belligerent in the yard and after ignoring orders, charged them and a brawl ensued.
Folkestad testified that he hit Gray on the head as hard as possible, but claims that the attack appeared to have no effect on Gray and that a fierce struggle ensued.
“I remember thinking, ‘This is the phone,'” Folkestad testified Wednesday morning. “This is where you have to shoot someone.”
In another radio transmission made by one of the officers during the scuffle, someone can be heard yelling in the background.
“Charlie 63 – here is the problem.
“10-4. You have him, but he is not in custody,” the dispatcher replies.
As the audio recording was played at the inquest, Melissa Gray buried her head in her hands and sobbed uncontrollably in the courtroom gallery.
“I was hearing the sound of my brother being killed and I was thinking about my brother being killed,” she later said. “I heard screams and beeps in the background. It was terrifying.”
The first three officers who contacted Gray on the day he died have testified, and several more are expected to appear in the coming days, along with paramedics, pathologists and investigators from BC’s Independent Bureau of Investigation. is.
