2nd VPD Gang Crime Unit officer takes stand in own defence at assault trial

One of the Vancouver Police Department officers involved in the 2015 beating death of Myles Gray took the stand in his own defence Tuesday in an unrelated assault trial stemming from an off-duty incident.

Const. Josh Wong told the court he was trying to protect his colleagues, bar staff, and even the alleged victim himself, when he used physical force during a confrontation that broke out in a nightclub in December 2023.

He and fellow officers from the VPD Gang Crime Unit were out that night for a Christmas party.

The court has heard that Wong his co-accused, Const. Brian Hunt, and several other officers visited three establishments that night, with Isabelle’s in Yaletown being the last stop.

Video from security cameras played in court shows the altercation begin in a narrow hallway near the bathrooms.

Hunt can be seen in the video waiting for an available bathroom when a man moves to the front of the line and begins speaking with a staff member stationed in the hallway.

Hunt suddenly reaches over, grabs the man by the arm, and shoves him through the hallway entry towards the main area of the club.

Testifying in his defence on Monday, Hunt explained that he became physical with the man because he thought he was being confrontational towards the staff member.

Crown lawyer Tyler Gloux challenged that version of events, saying it didn’t match up with the video, which he says simply shows the man and the staff member leaning close to one another to be heard over the loud music.

Gloux suggested that Hunt’s real motivation for getting physical was because he thought the man was trying to skip the line to use the bathroom – which Hunt denied.

The man Hunt removed from the hallway eventually returns as Hunt and Wong speak together in the hallway.

Words are exchanged and then Hunt reaches out and grabs the man in the shoulder or neck area.

In the melee that followed, video shows Wong shoving a second alleged victim to the floor.

Testifying in his defence on Tuesday, Wong said the physicality was in self-defence because the man was pulling at him.

Video from the aftermath shows the man seated on the floor and holding his head before Wong shoves him towards the floor a second time.

Wong told the court he acted to quickly end the situation because he feared it could escalate.

“It was in the back of my mind that there was a possibility that these gentlemen had a weapon,” Wong said. “I also didn’t know how many people were in their party in total.”

In cross-examination, Crown suggested to Wong that his alleged victim was simply trying to diffuse the situation – just as Wong claimed he himself was attempting to do.

Wong acknowledged that was a possibility.

Both officers acknowledge they were intoxicated at the time of the altercation, with Hunt testifying he had a total of ten drinks and Wong saying he had between nine and 11 throughout the evening.

The evidence phase of the trial has wrapped up, and the judge has adjourned proceedings until the court can fix a date for closing submissions.

At the conclusion of the trial, the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner will conduct its own investigation under the Police Act.

Wong is one of seven VPD officers involved in a separate OPCC public hearing into their actions in August of 2015 when Gray died after a violent confrontation with police in a Burnaby backyard near the Vancouver border.

That hearing has been adjourned until the fall because a lawyer for one of the respondent officers was appointed to the bench as a provincial court judge and could no longer represent his client.