Const. Beau Spencer is among seven Vancouver officers facing a public hearing by British Columbia's Police Complaint Commissioner into whether they committed misconduct during the fatal confrontation in 2015.

Spencer says Gray appeared to be in a state of "excited delirium," which could include making animalistic sounds and an inability to comprehend surroundings.

The officer told the hearing he had been trained to regard the situation as a medical emergency, not a crime.

No charges have been laid over Gray's death, which a 2023 coroner's inquest ruled was a homicide, a term that does not assign legal blame.

A pathologist told the earlier coroners' inquest that it had been thought "so-called excited delirium syndrome" could result independently in death, but analysis of the published data suggests that's "quite unlikely."

Spencer's lawyer, Claire Hatcher, said in introductory remarks at the public hearing that during a lucid moment by Gray, the officer told him he would be OK, and he was "reassured by a professional police officer who was concerned about his well-being."

Spencer's testimony at the hearing in Vancouver on Thursday came after that of Const. Eric Birzneck, who said he did not agree he had given a "lopsided" account of the altercation by likening Gray to "the Hulk" or a "charging bull."

Birzneck also denied trying to hide the fact that another officer had punched Gray as they attempted to subdue him when the counsel for the commission, Brock Martland, asked him if he was trying to "protect a fellow officer."

Martland asked Birzneck about his account of the attempt to arrest Gray, questioning whether his evidence omitted certain facts or minimized things to avoid creating problems for the others involved in the confrontation.

Birzneck disagreed and told the hearing his memories had been jogged over time with "pieces of the puzzle" coming together afterwards.

He told the hearing earlier this week that Gray displayed incredible strength and appeared "impervious to pain" as police tried to subdue him near the boundary between Burnaby and Vancouver on Aug. 13, 2015.

Birzneck said Thursday that he believed Gray was "arrestable" at the time, with no lawful right to repel officers' use of force against him.

The seven officers involved in the fatal altercation with Gray are named as respondents in the public hearing, called under the Police Act.

The commissioner's notice of public hearing said an earlier disciplinary process had 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 (Vancouver Police Department) members."

The earlier inquest heard Gray was left with injuries that included a fractured eye socket, crushed voice box and ruptured testicles, while a paramedic said Gray's bruising was so severe, he initially thought Gray was not a white man.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2026.