First responders on the scene Monday on Nevada Street in Lindenhurst.

First responders on the scene Monday on Nevada Street in Lindenhurst. Credit: Paul Mazza

Two onetime friends died in a suspected murder-suicide Monday afternoon in Lindenhurst, at crime scenes less than a half-mile apart, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.

One of the dead men was identified as Marek Gusciora, 66, of Nevada Street, according to a department press release. He was found at 3:57 p.m. with a gunshot wound to the chest lying in the front yard of his home, police said.   A 911 caller had alerted authorities.

The man police determined to have done the shooting was found dead about an hour later. He was identified as Augustyn Jedra, 69, who had no current address. Jedra sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was in a vehicle parked in a lot on Park Avenue, the release said.

The two were friends at one point, the police press office wrote by email.

"The two men had known each other for quite a while," the office said.

The office declined to disclose further information about the case, such as how detectives connected the two shootings, and an investigation into Jedra's motive remains open.

On Tuesday morning, at a house on nearby Lewis Avenue that appeared to be connected to the case, county crime scene personnel carried out a bag of what appeared to be evidence, including a long item wrapped in brown paper.

At the Nevada Street house, a man and a woman stopped and made the sign of the cross in the front yard, where Gusciora was found.

A man who answered the door there said no one was ready to discuss the killing.

Every year, nearly 1,200 Americans are killed in murder-suicides, and 9 out of 10 of them involve a gun, according to an estimate by the Violence Policy Center.

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