Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones met Tuesday with family members of a South Carolina man fatally shot by deputies in Alabama earlier this month.

“We extended our sympathy to them on the loss of their loved one,’’ Jones said in a prepared statement. “They are understandably seeking information regarding the encounter between Lee County Sheriff’s deputies and Mr. Gibbs the evening of June 9, 2023.”

The Lucius Benjamin Gibbs, a 58-year-old husband, father and grandfather, was reported missing by his family on June 7.

He was last seen the day before near a Charleston mall. Authorities at the time said Gibbs was believed to be driving a 2000 Ford F-250 with a South Carolina license plate.

Two days after Gibbs disappeared, Lee County deputies received a 911 call reporting a possible intoxicated driver traveling eastbound on U.S. 280 near the intersection of Lee Road 250 in the Bleeker community of southeast Lee County.

The call told dispatchers a white Ford pickup truck was serving across lanes and had run off the road into a ditch, sheriff’s officials said.

A deputy arrived on the scene about 10:55 p.m. and found the truck in a ditch less than a mile east of Lee Road 250 off U.S. 280.

The deputy approached the truck and saw a man appeared to be asleep in the driver’s seat. The deputy also spotted a rifle in the seat beside the man.

The deputy, sheriff’s officials said, then called for another deputy to come to the location. That deputy arrived at 11 p.m., and the deputies then noticed the truck beginning to back out of the ditch.

At that point, sheriff’s officials said, a gunshot was fired at the deputies. The two deputies returned fire and then called for medics when they realized the man had been shot.

Sheriff’s officials said deputies noticed the man had a handgun in one hand, and a semi-automatic shotgun with an extended magazine in the seat beside him.

The man, later identified as Gibbs, was pronounced dead on the scene.

The State Bureau of Investigation is leading the probe.

Sheriff Jones on Tuesday said Gibbs’ family “was provided what information we could share which is limited,’’ because of the ongoing SBI investigation.

Once that probe is complete, the SBI will submit their findings to the Lee County District Attorney for consideration by a grand jury, Jones said.