Const. Eric Birzneck testified at a public hearing into Myles Gray’s 2015 death that he believed Gray was arrestable and not legally entitled to resist officers’ force.
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Const. Eric Birzneck testified at a public hearing into the death of Myles Gray that he did not believe Gray had any lawful right to repel police use of force during their 2015 encounter.
Birzneck, one of seven Vancouver police officers named as respondents in the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner’s hearing, was the first to testify at the proceeding this week. The hearing is intended to determine whether the officers committed misconduct under the Police Act.
Hearing counsel Brock Martland asked Birzneck about situations in which a member of the public may legally resist police use of force if the police contact is unlawful. Birzneck said he believed Gray was “arrestable” at the time of the encounter.
Birzneck testified that Gray displayed exceptional strength as officers tried to subdue him near the boundary between Burnaby and Vancouver on Aug. 13, 2015. He described Gray as appearing “impervious to pain” during the confrontation.
No criminal charges have been laid in connection with Gray’s death. A 2023 coroner’s inquest ruled Gray’s death was a homicide, a term that does not assign legal blame.
The commissioner’s notice of public hearing says an earlier disciplinary process 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 VPD members.”
The inquest heard that Gray suffered injuries including a fractured eye socket, a crushed voice box and ruptured testicles, and that a paramedic told the inquest Gray’s bruising was so severe the paramedic initially thought he was not a white man.
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