Investigators believe John Melvin Lavergne shot the man and woman at his office about 1 p.m., said Louisiana State Police Lt. Doug Cain. Killed were Rhett Jeansonne and Kim Sledge, both veteran investigators with the department, said Insurance Department Commissioner Jim Donelon.
Lavergne, who had been cited more than once on fraud allegations, then barricaded himself inside the agency. More than 100 officers, including a SWAT team and negotiators, surrounded the office for hours before sending a robot into the two-story brick building.
The robot took pictures of Lavergne's body and SWAT members soon burst in to find him dead of a self-inflicted wound, state police said.
The fraud investigators did not have guns, said state police spokesman Sgt. Stephen Hammons.
The state Department of Insurance in 2009 had suspended Lavergne's insurance license and fined him $16,500, saying he provided fraudulent proofs of vehicle insurance several times. He was 64 at the time.
Donelon said in a news release then that Lavergne had been in business for almost 40 years and held both casualty, property and vehicle physical damage licenses and a life, accident and health license.
In January, state police arrested Lavergne, who was charged with unfair trade practices. In October 2010, police received complaints that Lavergne was not sending payments from his customers to their insurance companies, according to a news release. As a result, at least four customers had seven of their policies cancelled, police said.
Cynthia Doucet said she was driving on Tuesday and looked down a side street and saw Jeansonne lying outside the insurance office. Later she saw the blood on the side of his shirt. She and a friend approached with others, including several women from a nearby bank, to try to help.
"The man said he couldn't breathe and he was hollering for help," she said. "I went closer to the man and I see this lady lying inside the door and she was looking like she was dead."
Shattered glass littered the sidewalk in front of the office and blood smears visible on metal door jam and on dingy linoleum just inside door.
Charlene Adcock, 54, of Ville Platte, said she and her boyfriend had been Lavergne's customers for many years, but stopped doing business with him after some problems.
"Both me and my boyfriend, we'd go to get our driver's license renewed, and we'd have flags on our insurance," she said. The department of motor vehicles said their insurance had been cancelled.
When they complained to Lavergne, he said he'd fix it, which he did. But then the same thing would happen, she said.
Residents say Lavergne and other members of his family owned several businesses in the city of about 8,000 some 70 miles west of Baton Rouge.
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Associated Press writer Mary Foster contributed to this report from New Orleans.
