A black bear was shot and killed Friday morning after wandering into a North St. Paul neighborhood.

"Unfortunately, it attracted a lot of the public's attention and they weren't going to leave it alone, so it had to be put down," said Police Chief Tom Lauth.

Shortly before 9 a.m., a staff member at St. Peter's Catholic School on N. Margaret Street called police after spotting the bear on school grounds.

When police arrived, a crowd had already gathered, "wanting to get pictures of the cute little bear, that kind of thing," Lauth said.

In addition to curious adults, a large number of children were in the neighborhood. Police told school staffers to keep the children indoors.

After the bear climbed a tree, a Department of Natural Resources staffer shot bean bags at it to get it to climb down. When the bear clambered down and tried to run away, officers shot it, Lauth said.

"With the public so curious, it became a public safety issue," he said. "These animals are normally nocturnal, so we couldn't be sure if it was sick or injured."

He added: "We heard a report yesterday there was a bear spotted in Maplewood, so it may have been the same one. It was definitely not a normal thing. In over 20 years here, I've never seen one before."

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