Skip to content

IIO asks Crown to consider charges in Gray investigation

The Independent Investigation Office (IIO) has concluded its investigation into the 2015 death of Myles Gray of Sechelt, and confirms it will be forwarding a report to the B.C. Prosecution Service asking it to consider charges.
Gray
A photo of Myles Gray shortly before his death in 2015

The Independent Investigation Office (IIO) has concluded its investigation into the 2015 death of Myles Gray of Sechelt, and confirms it will be forwarding a report to the B.C. Prosecution Service asking it to consider charges.

“In approving charges, B.C. Prosecution Service must be satisfied there is a substantial likelihood of conviction based on the evidence gathered by the IIO and that the prosecution is in the public interest,” the IIO said in a release issued Jan. 16.

Gray was making deliveries for his landscape business near South East Marine Drive and Joffre Avenue in Vancouver on Aug. 13, 2015 when VPD responded to a call about a man spraying a woman with a garden hose. 

It’s still not clear what happened next, but at some point there was an altercation with police that resulted in fatal injuries to Gray. He was 33 years old.

His mother, Margie Gray, told Coast Reporter Tuesday that the family met earlier that day for a briefing from IIO investigators.

In a post to the Justice for Myles Gray Facebook she said, “The IIO came to visit us and after a hellish three years, five months and two days [IIO chief civilian director] Ron MacDonald and team are passing Myles’ case to Crown… It is my hope as well as Myles’ family and friends that this horrific crime against Myles leads to charges against the VPD officers that took his life.”

In its release, the IIO said, “The length of this investigation relates to a number of aspects, including a difference of opinion with a witness officer regarding the extent of their duty to cooperate under the Police Act in the context of a second interview. Also, in an effort to obtain further information regarding the cause of death, additional forensic pathology resources were sought and provided by the Coroner’s Office in 2018 in order to ensure a comprehensive investigation.”

A statement of background facts presented as part of a court petition outlined a list of serious injuries suffered by Gray, but it also said the coroner had not determined a specific cause of death.

The officer the IIO went to court with in 2017 was Const. Hardeep Sahota, who was described as a “key witness.”

Sahota is, so far, the only officer involved to be publicly named.

A civil suit filed by Gray’s family in 2016 against the VPD, Sahota, 10 VPD officers named only as John Doe, the City of Vancouver, and the Vancouver Police Board is still before the court.