Suleiman Ali, 26, was one of the two young men shot dead on Jamestown Crescent on Sept. 18, 2012. (Toronto Police Service)

As two families grieve the loss of two young men gunned down in northwest Toronto, police are trying to decipher why they were in the area where they were killed.

Toronto police were called to a laneway behind Jamestown Crescent, after residents heard gunshots fired in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The bodies of two men were found at the scene, both of whom had suffered gunshot wounds.

Within hours, police identified the victims as Suleiman Ali and Warsame Ali.

Both men were 26 years old. The two men weren’t related, but they were friends.

Warsame Ali grew up in Jamestown, where he was ultimately killed, while Suleiman Ali was from the nearby community of Mount Olive.

Warsame Ali, 26, was shot dead on Jamestown Crescent on Sept. 18, 2012, along with another man. (Warsame family)

Yet despite the men’s ties to the area, police are appealing to the public for information "regarding the reason the two men were in this area and their whereabouts leading up to the shooting."

A community worker who spoke to CBC News said that the presence of a person from Mount Olive in Jamestown could have been enough to spark a shooting.

"A person from Mount Olive came over to town, I guess to do their business and it’s not supposed to be like that," said Dane Shaw.

"If they are doing business, probably the Jamestown leaders them accept it if it’s done outside the community. But you don’t bring them inside the neighbourhood."

Street gang members from the two communities have long been in conflict.

With reports from the CBC's John Lancaster