Murray Wood: Of Easter bunny bells and Juicy Fruit gum
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VANCOUVER — A man who called 911 about Myles Gray before his fatal confrontation with a group of Vancouver police officers in 2015 says he was scared and followed Gray from a distance, watching him nearly get hit by cars as he appeared to be either intoxicated or mentally unwell.
Muhammed Reza told day two of a public hearing into Gray’s death in Vancouver that he waited 30 minutes for officers to arrive.
Seven Vancouver police officers involved in the subsequent altercation have denied misconduct allegations.
Reza said he called 911 after Gray sprayed Reza’s mother with a hose and made comments about her appearance. He told the hearing he Initially thought Gray was drunk, on drugs or experiencing a mental illness.
“He looked like he was in distress,” he said on Tuesday.
He testified that the first officer to arrive approached Gray in a police car and that he “started to get aggressive” and the officer “got scared.”
Reza said Gray tried to open the police car door and was grabbing onto the open window,
He said additional officers arrived and he lost sight of what was happening, but “heard three screams.” He said two officers re-appeared, one limping and one with blood on his head.
Gray would die after the altercation that left him with injuries including ruptured testicles and fractures in his eye socket, nose, voice box and rib.
The officers have all denied allegations of abuse of authority and neglect of duty related to Gray’s death, but it’s not clear whether any of them will testify, since the police complaint commissioner cannot compel them to do so.
None of them have ever been charged or disciplined over Gray’s death.
Andreah Pilgrim testified earlier Tuesday that she saw Gray prior to the incident and that he “just didn’t look right.”
Pilgrim said she was working at an insurance business near the border between Vancouver and Burnaby, B.C., and was outside when she saw Gray, pacing back and forth near a bus stop, looking under bushes, putting his fists in the air and mumbling to himself.
Pilgrim said Gray was muscular and “well-built” and she saw him again when she drove for a coffee, testifying she had a “bad feeling” when she heard sirens and saw police vehicles and an ambulance “flying up the street.”
Pilgrim said she called police the day after noticing Gray, after learning of the deadly altercation from the news, giving a statement to investigators about what she saw.
“I will always just say he just didn’t look right. There was just something odd about his behaviour,” she said.
The hearing by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner began on Monday, hearing testimony from Gray’s mother Margaret, who has said there is a need for a accountability over her 33-year-old son’s death
The hearing is scheduled over 10 weeks and will hear from witnesses including officers and other emergency responders, a police use-of-force expert, Vancouver Police Union representatives and others.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 20, 2026.
Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press
