VANCOUVER — A man who died after being beaten by police in 2015 had been injecting unprescribed testosterone, his family doctor told a public hearing into the death.
But Dr. Christoffel Mentz-Serfontein said Thursday that Myles Gray never displayed any behaviour that caused concern about him being violent toward anyone.
“He was always pleasant and courteous,” the doctor said of his interactions with Gray.
He said Gray, who had bipolar disorder, had been using “black market” steroids, which are sometimes much higher dosages than those prescribed by a doctor and can cause a variety of side-effects, such as cardiovascular issues.
Mentz-Serfontein noted people often use testosterone for building excess muscle mass.
The hearing was called by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner of B.C. into the actions of several Vancouver police officers who had a violent encounter with Gray in August 2015. Police were originally called to a complaint of a man who sprayed a woman with water from a garden hose.
Police told a coroner’s inquest in 2023 that Gray exhibited “superhuman strength” and was behaving in an “animalistic” way, and he didn’t appear to feel pain as they hit him with their batons and knees, punched him in the face and wrestled him to the ground.
Mentz-Serfontein told the hearing on Thursday that the steroids had caused Gray to have an elevated red blood cell count, and he told his patient that his use of the steroid could aggravate his bipolar disorder.
“On two occasions, I noted that I discussed with him about his use and potentially looking at cutting back, given his abnormal blood numbers,” he said.
When asked about changes to Gray’s mental well-being leading up to 2015, Mentz-Serfontein said the only documentation he had was of “one episode of depressed mood.”
“And from my interactions after that, there was no indication of him struggling from a mental health perspective,” he said.
On cross-examination, the physician testified that a concern with testosterone injections in someone with bipolar disorder was that it could destabilize their mood, make them more manic and increase aggression in someone displaying mania.
Gray’s family had sought the hearing after a discipline authority cleared seven officers of misconduct in 2024.
Also testifying on Thursday was Const. Chris Bowater who responded to the scene after the altercation and described the moment when it appeared Gray stopped breathing.
He said he had arrived to find Gray laying under a tree in the “recovery position,” handcuffed and breathing. Bowater said other officers already on the scene — including constables Josh Wong, Derek Cain and Beau Spencer — decided to move Gray away from a sharp drop and into the centre of the lawned area, where Gray “starts to regain consciousness a little bit more.”
He said Gray was told three times to remain calm and still as paramedics were on their way to assess him.
Bowater said that as Cain “knelt down on the backside” of Gray, using his hand to push down on his left elbow, Gray again appeared to relax before struggling again.
He said Gray began grunting, swearing and spitting, as two officers restrained him. He said Gray made a “fast twist” out of Spencer’s grip and “put himself face down into the grass” for “approximately 10 seconds.”
Bowater said Cain then rolled Gray over.
“As he rolled him back toward his left side, I saw that Mr. Gray’s face was red. His tongue was hanging out and it did not appear that he was breathing,” the officer testified.
He said Gray was uncuffed and rolled onto his back. Bowater, a former paramedic, began chest compressions until he was relieved by a Burnaby firefighter, said the officer, who is expected to continue testifying on Friday.
Other testimony on Thursday came from RCMP Sgt. Robert Nash, who conducted a Police Act investigation of the officers involved in the death.
Nash was taken through transcripts of police radio calls the day of Gray’s death, which included officers’ reports of Gray fighting back before he was brought into custody and handcuffed.
Const. Eric Birzneck’s lawyer Mike Shirreff then brought Nash to a 2017 report by a medical expert retained by B.C.’s police oversight authority, the Independent Investigations Office.
That report said Birzneck had attempted on two occasions to apply a vascular neck restraint on Gray, which Shirreff confirmed with Nash was “an approved use-of-force technique” at the Vancouver Police Department.
The report concluded the details in the arrest did not indicate that the use of such a restraint caused Gray’s death.
Shirreff then cited a separate 2017 report by a use of force expert, which also helped inform Nash’s investigation. The lawyer asked Nash whether he agreed that the expert’s opinion detailed in that report had been that “the actions of the officers did not fall outside the standards at the time.”
Nash replied that, to the best of his recollection, that was a fair characterization of the expert’s general findings in that report.
Birzneck and six other officers have denied misconduct in Gray’s beating death.
That coroner’s jury concluded that Gray’s death was a homicide after hearing that he died shortly after the beating by several officers, leaving him with injuries including a fractured eye socket, a crushed voice box and ruptured testicles.
The term “homicide” is used by the BC Coroners Service to classify a death resulting from injury intentionally inflicted by another person. It does not imply fault or blame.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2026.
Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press
