Some Coquitlam residents had a close encounter on Sunday.

Julie Keaton and her son Adam were grocery shopping when they saw a lot of people, including police and firefighters and the city’s mayor, gathered near a soccer field.

“We thought we’d drive in and see what was going on,” Keaton said. “We experienced something that we’ll probably never see again. And hopefully we won’t.”

That something was a black bear, just a few steps away from a soccer field in a busy park.

Officers asked the crowd that had gathered to be quiet and keep their distance, worried that they would spook the bear.

“You keep your distance,” Keaton said of her strategy when she encounters a bear. “Distance is important. I live in the area and I see bears all the time.”

The animal wasn’t easy to tranquilize -- possibly because of the large number of people and the noise level in the area, officials said.

It ran up a tree, and firefighters had to use a ladder truck to get it down. Once it was down, police fired another tranquilizer dart to subdue it.

Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart said the bear’s location near the city’s busiest park was extra cause for concern.

“We don’t want bears where people are,” he said. “The interactions are just unpredictable. This one ended well, but we took no chances. We made sure that people were kept away from it and that the bear was ultimately relocated.”

Conservation officers say the bear could have been drawn to the area for a number of reasons. They’ll now assess its condition and relocate it.

“It’s about as good an end as you could hope for when a bear becomes treed in a city park surrounded by children,” Stewart said.