Insurance agent kills two fraud investigators, self in Ville Platte, La., say cops

(CBS/AP) VILLE PLATTE, La. - Two unarmed Louisiana insurance fraud investigators were fatally shot Tuesday while trying to collect information from an agent who later killed himself, authorities said.

The shooting at about 1 p.m. killed Rhett Jeansonne and Kim Sledge, said state Insurance Department Commissioner Jim Donelon.

John Melvin Lavergne, who had been cited more than once on fraud allegations, then barricaded himself inside the agency where the shooting happened. More than 100 officers, including a SWAT team and negotiators, surrounded the building for hours.

Lavergne died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said state police spokesman Sgt. Stephen Hammons. He said the fraud investigators did not have guns.

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.

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.