Loser in Stock Market Skid Kills Broker, Then Himself

A longtime customer who lost heavily in the stock market crash walked into his brokers’ office today and opened fire, killing one vice president and wounding another before he killed himself.

“We believe it was, in fact, related to losses suffered in the market during the recent downturn,” Metro Dade Police Cmdr. William Johnson said but he added that this had not been confirmed.

“The shooter came into the (Merrill Lynch) brokerage firm. Apparently he was upset about something,” said police spokesman Alfredo Hidalgo-Gato. “He then shot two Merrill Lynch employees, killing one of them, and seriously wounding the other.”

Hidalgo-Gato said the customer, identified as Arthur Kane, 53, of Kendall, then killed himself with his own gun.

A Merrill Lynch employee, Kathy Abraham, said Kane was “a longtime customer. He was a wonderful man.”

Johnson identified the victims as Jose Argilagos, 51, who was killed instantly, and Lloyd Kolokoff, 38, who was taken to a hospital by helicopter. He had a gunshot wound in the back, a possible spinal injury, and was in surgery early this afternoon. Both were vice presidents of Merrill Lynch.

Alan Pierce, a friend of Kolokoff, said: “I told him to be careful. You have people’s emotions running very high now. He seemed very busy, trying to get his customers squared away.”

Jerry Bovenkamp, property manager for the Merrill Lynch building, said “It appears that a man called up in the morning and asked for a meeting with his broker and the manager. . . . My security people tell me the man went into the manager’s office, and then the shooting started.”

Police said shots were reported at 11:14 a.m. in the Merrill Lynch brokerage office at The Falls shopping center, about 12 miles southwest of downtown Miami.