The man who called 911 to alert police about a distraught man “holding a big stick and screaming” says if he hadn’t called, the man would still be alive.

Wayne Klyne made his comments in the coroners court hearing into the death of Tony Du, who was shot by Vancouver police just moments later.

“This guy would still be around if not for me making a phone call,” Klyne told police in a statement, and reiterated his sentiment when asked about it on the stand Monday.

“If I hadn’t phoned, chances are he would still be walking,” Klyne said.

Du was shot dead after police were called to a scene at Knight Street near East 41st Avenue on November 22, 2014. He suffered from schizophrenia, which was being treated at the time, the court heard, though Du had relapses that were often related to losing money at Metro Vancouver casinos.

“There’s a big guy standing on the corner with a big stick, screaming with a big stick,” Klyne can be heard on a 911 call recording that was played in the coroners court.

“Do you see anybody get injured?” asks the dispatcher.

“No,” Klyne replies. “He’s just waving it around, holding it in his hand.”

About five minutes into the 911 call, sirens can be heard.

“I believe they are in the trunk of the car. Getting a stun gun, I have no idea. Walking over to him now,” says Klyne. “Whoa, he just swung the bat at the officer!”

The call ends before any shots are fired.

Klyne told the court that the officers didn’t give the man any orders, warnings, or try to get him medical attention after he collapsed on the street. He said he knew the man was shot when feathers blew out of his jacket.

The court heard the officers handcuffed Du as he lay on the road.

“He didn’t have a chance to say anything,” Klyne said.

The policing policy consultant for Pivot Legal Society, Camia Weaver, said she hopes that the coroners court hearing creates some recommendations to help police better handle cases of mental illness.

“Sometimes situations get to a point when something is needed if someone is intensely psychotic and dangerous, but there are less lethal alternatives that are a preference to bullets,” she said.

Du’s sister, Lin Chan, said she left Vietnam in 1979 with her two brothers when North Vietnamese troops announced they wanted ethnic Chinese to leave. They spent a year in Hong Kong before coming to Canada.

At the time, Du was 18 and his sister was 24. He got a job in a bakery and was “a very polite and nice guy,” Chan said through a translator.

But he had sleep troubles, and became unhappy and lost his temper, and “appeared not himself,” she said.

He was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1988, and treated with anti-psychotic drugs. He was a patient of a mental health team but they referred him back to a psychiatrist because they believed he was stable.

Du lived with his mother who supported him while he received disability payments, the court heard. Occasionally, he would lose his temper and say he heard voices which he could not understand were not real, she said.

Chan found out her brother was dead when she was trying to go home, and found the intersection blocked. When she finally made it home she found her mother in tears.

“Mom said to me, ‘Your younger brother has died,’” she said, adding that the police were there hoping to talk to her family about what happened.