To be fair to the police, yes, they may have acted hastily, but a bear in the city is a death foretold.
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It is important not to feed wildlife, or make life-with-humans easy and friendly, because a bear that ends up liking city-living is almost certainly going to end up dead.  That is the lesson of the garbage dumps at Churchill, Manitoba, and elsewhere.
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Certain animals adapt well to urban life, and find it highly preferable to living in the wild - Seagulls, Pigeons, Canada Geese, Raccoons, Deer, Skunks, Coyotes.  All have prospered and multiplied in urban settings, to the point where they are an enormous nuisance, and, really, need to be culled.  Where are the natural predators that are going to balance out the Canada Goose population?
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Bears adapt well to human left-over food, too.   They are basically equivalent to really big raccoons.
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But the very sharp claws of a 70 lb. raccoon are dangerous enough.
A 350 lb. adult male black bear is something else, again.