They caught up with the suspect north of the initial sightings about an hour later, hiding underneath someone's back deck in the Ravenna Park neighborhood.

"I have learned over the years, never to say never. If people say they've got a bear in my backyard, I have to believe them," said Sgt. Kim Chandler of the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Wildlife officials moved in with tranquilizer darts loaded with powerful drugs to calm down the young male, about 3 years old and believed to weigh about 150 to 200 pounds.

But Chandler said the bear put up too much of a fight in a densely populated area, so when tranquilizer hits to the shoulder and rear did not immobilize the bear, police shocked the animal with their Taser guns. It died at the scene.

"We did everything that we could less than lethal - the drugs, the Taser. I think that combination just didn't work out right," Chandler said.

Fish and Wildlife agents believe this bear could have been one of two bears recently seen in the Shoreline area. They speculated he made his way south, traveling at night and sleeping during the day.