Bullets are explosives. They killed 5 cops yesterday. The police bomb only killed one person. I suppose you would have preferred that a couple more cops got killed as long as they used non-military style weapons.
Bullets are projectiles. The propellant is the explosive.
And no, I do not prefer that more cops were killed. I am willing to admit that there are no guarantees other options would have resulted in no further casualties.
Of course, prior to the event, there were no guarantees the explosives would have worked either. How big was the charge? How well barricaded was the guy? Did the cops have a followup robot or camera to check that the shooter was out? Or did they just charge in after the explosion? If they ran into a hail of gunfire from a wounded suspect, you wouldn't have thought the explosives were a great idea aither.