VANCOUVER — Myles Gray had injuries that “looked like a hanging” when he died following an altercation with Vancouver police, a paramedic told a hearing into the actions of seven officers.
Scott McEwen told the inquiry by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner on Wednesday that the wounds he saw on Gray in 2015 were “visually disturbing” and “traumatizing.”
“And I say that because of the sheer, what looked like trauma to me, affected on the patient with the wounds, with the bruising, with the discoloration,” he said.
“That is why, in my previous statements, I said, to me, it looked like a hanging. The weird discoloration with the neck up and the shoulders, the facial features.”
McEwen said Gray had a significant amount of trauma to the face and eye areas, including bulging eyes or eyelids.
The hearing by the police complaint commissioner’s office, is looking into the actions of seven Vancouver police officers on that day, who were all cleared of misconduct in 2024 by a police discipline authority.
A coroner’s inquest in 2023 heard that Gray was left with injuries, including a fractured eye socket, a crushed voice box and ruptured testicles.
Jeffrey Hutchinson was one of the first paramedics on the scene and cried while testifying about the day Gray died.
Hutchinson initially testified Wednesday that he didn’t see any bruising on Gray’s neck.
He later confirmed that he told investigators months after the death that Gray’s neck “looked bruised” and said that interview would have been a better recollection of what he saw so many years ago.
Hutchinson said paramedics had difficulty intubating Gray on the scene when he was in cardiac arrest and that he had to help by pushing on his neck so the other first responder would have a better view.
He said he has been thinking about the situation since Gray died and now believes having to do such a manoeuvre should have been a “red flag.”
“We don’t normally have to do that unless there’s been trauma,” he said.
Hutchinson testified there were no concerns about whether oxygen was getting into Gray’s lungs during CPR.
Police told the coroner’s inquest that Gray exhibited “superhuman strength” and he didn’t appear to feel pain as they hit him and wrestled him to the ground.
McEwen said Wednesday that when he saw Gray’s size and muscles he thought he was a steroid user.
The hearing has been told that Gray had been injecting unprescribed testosterone.
Burnaby firefighter Travis Nagata treated injured officers at the scene and later helped in attempts to resuscitate Gray.
He said multiple officers referred to Gray as “the devil” with one officer saying he struck Gray with his baton on the leg and “he kept coming at him” and another saying he hit him on the arm and “he didn’t even flinch.”
Hutchinson described CPR happening for 30 to 40 minutes before a doctor was called and Gray was declared dead.
Both McEwen and Hutchinson told the hearing that Gray’s blood was darker than usual, which they said is a sign of a lack of oxygen, though McEwen said it could also be caused by dehydration or other medical conditions.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2026
Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press
