Police officers shot and killed a 48-year-old Louisiana man Friday morning off the grassy shoulder of eastbound Interstate 10, less than a half hour after he allegedly used a handgun to rob the Regions Bank across from the Eastern Shore Centre in Spanish Fort, authorities said.

“The officers were forced to shoot him,” said Maj. Anthony Lowery, Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office spokesman.

About 25 minutes later, four Loxley patrol cars surrounded then stopped the suspect’s white Chevrolet C1500 truck in the fast lane of I-10, nearly a mile east of Wilcox exit. The suspect bolted from the truck and ran down the grassy wall of a drainage ditch.

Lowery said the suspect refused the officers’ commands and then pulled out his handgun. It was unclear whether the suspect fired a shot before officers fired on him, Lowery said. The suspect was struck by more than one bullet, he said. The handgun and other weapons later were recovered from the suspect’s body, he said.

Baldwin County, Ala., bank robbery suspect killed