PORTLAND (AP) – Police say concern for public safety prompted them to kill a 278-pound black bear that was roaming through back yards in a densely populated section of South Portland.

Officers tracked the bear through residential neighborhoods for nearly an hour before Sgt. David Smith brought it down shortly before 7 a.m. Monday with two rounds of buckshot from a 12-gauge shotgun. Even then, Smith had to shoot it three times with his service revolver before it was dead.

Police were worried, he said, because joggers, walkers and cyclists were using a nearby walking and bicycling path and children were about to start heading to school.

“It didn’t leave us much choice,” Smith said. “It was getting closer to when the kids were going to start coming out.”

Smith shot the bear in a back yard as it started to climb a chain-link fence near some bushes.

South Portland police recently got a tranquilizer gun, he said, but the weapon couldn’t be used because it uses prescription drugs and requires special training and certification, which the city’s animal control officer has not yet completed.

Police had tried to call in a state game warden, but the closest one was a two-hour drive away.

As the bruin made its way toward the Pleasantdale neighborhood along and near Broadway, even a 6-foot stockade fence presented no more than a temporary obstacle.

“He looked like Spiderman going up and over it,” Smith said. “I’ve been here 30 years and this is the first time I’ve had a bear come to town.”

Police tried to call in a state game warden, but the closest one was a two-hour drive away.

When Smith and two other officers responded to the initial call of a bear sighting, the bear was spooked and began to run.

“Bears are very agile,” Smith said. “I was kind of surprised.”

Officers followed the bear in patrol cars, tracking it by the ruckus it caused. “People were coming out of their houses saying, I just saw a bear in my back yard!’ ” Smith said. “We were getting good intelligence along the way.”

Although it was later determined that the bear was a young male about 2 years old and weighing 278 pounds, Smith said it appeared a lot bigger.

“When he stood up, I swear he looked 6-foot-2 and 500 pounds,” he said.

Mark Latti, spokesman for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, said police handled the situation correctly.

Latti said tranquilizer guns often are not appropriate in an urban setting because they take time to work and a bear could run into traffic or hurt someone in the meantime.

“For police and game wardens, public safety is paramount,” Latti said. “The police did the right thing in putting this bear down.”

AP-ES-05-19-04 0947EDT