Brothers found shot dead in Hempstead basement is murder-suicide, police say

Two brothers found dead in the basement of a home in Hempstead on Wednesday morning died in a murder-suicide, Nassau County police said on Friday afternoon.

David Adamson, 52, was shot dead by his brother Garfield Adamson, 50, who then turned the gun on himself, a news release said. Both men lived in the home, police said.

In a phone interview, Donald Adamson, 58, of Hempstead, said he was still trying to process the violent deaths of his younger brothers.

"I can't explain it," Adamson told a Newsday reporter on Thursday. 

Hempstead police discovered the men on Wednesday after responding to a 911 call about 10:30 a.m. reporting two "unresponsive males" in the home on Angevine Avenue. Both men were pronounced dead at the scene.

Nassau Homicide Squad detectives took over the investigation from Hempstead police. A crime scene was established on Wednesday at the home near the senior community Greenwich Gardens. Police vehicles lined both sides of the residential street behind yellow crime scene tape. 

Neighbors in the area told Newsday they did not know the two men or anyone else who lived in the home.

Police have not yet said whether a weapon was recovered at the scene. However, detectives did determine "there is no additional threat to the public," Nassau police said in a news release earlier this week.

Bishop Phillip E. Elliott, pastor of Antioch Baptist Church of Hempstead, said in a phone interview Friday afternoon that David Adamson had worked as a sexton at the church, though he did not know him well. "The whole community is shocked," he said. "We’re trying to see how we can be of help."

Newsday's John Asbury and Nicholas Grasso and Nicholas Spangler contributed to this story.