Old Lyme — Police have identified the two men involved in the Sunday afternoon stabbing inside Big Y that left one of the men dead and the other in critical condition.

The two men work for a company that operates the sushi department at the store.

Jing-Song Gao, 34, of Methuen, Mass., was identified as the deceased. Police said he operated the store's sushi counter.

Tan Lin, 40, of 36 West End Drive, Old Lyme, is the other man who was involved. A Life Star helicopter took Lin to Yale New Haven Hospital with serious injuries, police said.

Lin was in critical condition, a Yale New Haven Hospital spokesperson said.

At Lin's West End Drive home, a beach house with a waterfront view and a "for rent" sign in the window, a handwritten note was scribbled on a piece of notebook paper pasted on the screen door: "The family has no comment at this time. Please respect our privacy."

In an emailed statement, Big Y Foods Inc. management offered thoughts and prayers to everyone involved in the "tragic incident."

Big Y officials said they've sent in additional support to assist employees of the store, which is located in the Old Lyme Marketplace shopping center on state Route 1.

The Big Y, which remained closed for the remainder of Sunday, was open but quiet Monday morning.

Inside, employees carried on hushed conversations. Toward the back of the store, under the fresh sushi sign, multiple freezers sat empty.

By the afternoon, the store was bustling. In the parking lot, residents had mixed views of the incident, which they considered "unfortunate."

Camron Roberts, a 17-year-old Lyme-Old Lyme High School senior, said many students were talking about the stabbing at school Monday.

"It was pretty scary," Roberts said of what he thought when he first heard what happened. "Not a lot of those kinds of things happen around here. It's not a very violent area."

Murders are rare in Old Lyme, a town of about 7,500 people with a median home value of about $400,000, according to the U.S. Census. If police deem the man's death a murder, it would be the first since 2007, when Old Lyme resident Craig Sadosky became frustrated with his then-girlfriend's 3-year-old son while the two were walking and beat him to death.

Roberts, who doesn't live far from the store, visits about three times a week. He said he likely had seen Gao around, but wouldn't recognize Gao if he saw him somewhere else.

Lifelong resident Clint Teixeira, 36, was less surprised about the altercation.

"It could happen anywhere nowadays," he said. "It doesn't really matter where you are — it's the way of the world."

Teixeira said the stabbing didn't make him scared to go to the Big Y.

"It doesn't shock me," he said, noting that violent crimes have occurred in town before.

"Not very often," he acknowledged, "but it does happen."

According to state police Central District Major Crime Squad spokesman Lt. Michael Kostrzewa, police found the two men with stab wounds near the frozen food section when they arrived to the supermarket at about 2:15 p.m. Sunday.

He said the two men knew each other.

A store manager declined to comment Monday morning and deferred to the corporate office.

The Central District Major Crime unit is working to determine why the stabbing occurred and who the aggressor was.

l.boyle@theday.com