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Investigators said Peter Koc apparently fired the shots that killed him and Zofia Koc in the 3rd Street home that she and his late father bought when was a toddler.
However, they have more work to do before officially determining whether it was a murder-suicide or an incident that may have begun with an unintentional shooting, Daily Voice has learned.
Police found the bodies, and the gun, while conducting a requested welfare check at the family’s home near Hadley Avenue around 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12.
Each victim died of a single gunshot wound, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes and Clifton Police Chief Thomas Rinaldi said in a joint announcement.
Valdes and Rinaldi confirmed that no suspects were being sought and no danger to the public existed.
“More information will be released when it becomes available,” they said late Wednesday afternoon.
Zofia (Jurkowska) Koc's husband and Peter's father, Antoni Koc, died in January 2022. He'd bought the 1,600-square-foot home in 1993, property records show.
Zofia Koc had three grandchildren born to another son (Peter's brother) and his wife.
Peter Koc was graduated from Paramus Catholic High School and got his Bachelor of Science degree from Seton Hall University in 2011, according to his online bio.
He most recently worked as quality and logistics manager at DeLeon Plastics Corporation in Paterson for more than eight years, it says.
Before that, it says, he was a bioreagent technologist -- and previously a lab assistant -- with Werfern in Orangeburg, NY (Rockland County).
Responders Tuesday night included Clifton police, the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office, the Passaic County sheriff's forensic unit -- which collected ballistic and other evidence -- and the New Jersey Medical Examiner's Office, which is expected to conduct autopsies.
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