Anthony Grainger, 36, of Bolton, was shot in a car park in Culcheth, Cheshire, in March 2012 in an operation planned by Greater Manchester Police.
Officers believed Mr Grainger was in a gang planning an armed robbery.
Assistant Chief Constable Steven Heywood, who gave the authority for firearms officers, said intelligence suggested he was violent.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Mr Grainger had been under surveillance as part of Operation Shire before he was shot through the windscreen of a stolen Audi in a car park.
Mr Heywood, who now works for the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, said he had given authority for firearms officers and the use of specialist munitions, including CS gas canisters, on 1 March, two days before the fatal shooting.
The inquiry has heard Mr Grainger did not have any convictions for violence.
Asked if he still thought Mr Grainger had been prone to violence, Mr Heywood said: "There was intelligence to suggest that, yes."
But he said he would not be able to reveal where that intelligence came from while the inquiry was in public session.
Mr Heywood is due to give evidence in closed session on Thursday.
The inquiry has already heard two weeks of evidence behind closed doors and a number of witnesses, including the officer who shot Mr Grainger, are being kept anonymous and will give evidence from behind a screen.
The court has heard officers deployed a CS gas canister into the car Mr Grainger was in at around the time of the shooting, but use of the gas was not authorised by the home secretary at the time.
Insp Andrew Fitton, the tactical adviser for the operation, told the inquiry he had not been aware use of the gas was not authorised.
The inquiry is expected to run until 21 April.
An unarmed man shot dead by police was "prone to violent tendencies", a senior officer told an inquiry.