OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Behind the police tape, a white coroner's van sat in front of a garage on the 600 block of South The Strand. It waited to collect the body of Junior Seau, a linebacker among the most feared in N.F.L. history, father to three teenagers, son to the mother who wailed long and loud on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, according to the Oceanside Police, Seau's girlfriend went to the gym. When she returned, she found Seau in a bedroom, a gunshot wound to the chest, a revolver found near his body but not a note. He was 43.

The police are investigating Seau's death as a suicide, Lieutenant Leonard Mata said, adding that they do not expect to finish the investigation until next week.

Seau would be the second former N.F.L. player to commit suicide in the past two weeks. Ray Easterling, a safety for the Atlanta Falcons in the 1970s and a plaintiff in a high-profile lawsuit against the N.F.L. over its handling of concussion-related injuries, died on April 19 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. In February 2011, the former Chicago Bears star Dave Duerson shot himself in the chest, saying in a note that he wanted his brain donated to the study of football head injuries.

As word of Seau's death spread through the city he long called home, the crowd swelled outside the police tape, fans clad in Seau jerseys and San Diego Chargers caps, carrying flowers and lighted candles and homemade signs.

At 1:17 p.m., or roughly four hours after Seau's girlfriend called police, after officials said they performed "lifesaving efforts" on an unconscious Seau in his bedroom, dozens of family members and friends surrounded the coroner's white van. The back door opened. Seau's body was placed inside. As the van inched slowly down the street, through a crowd that numbered in the hundreds, Seau's mother, Luisa, threw her hands in the air and screamed.

"Seau's last ride," one onlooker noted.

"I don't understand," his mother said.

Outside the house with the brick front and chairs upstairs on the deck pointed at the nearby ocean, they tried to make sense of Seau and what happened and could not. Here was a linebacker who played 20 seasons in the N.F.L. for three teams, who made 12 Pro Bowls and went to two Super Bowls and was named to the 1990s All-Decade Team by the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Here was a man who grew up here, played college ball close by at Southern California, starred close by with the Chargers for much of his professional career. Here was a man who never really left the place he came from, who directed many of his philanthropic efforts in the community where he grew up. Here was a man with three teenage children: a daughter, Sydney, and two sons, Jake and Hunter, at least one of whom was at the home Wednesday.

To those assembled, a crowd that included people who went to Seau's barbershop and stopped him to chat in local restaurants, this is how they wanted to remember Seau, how they want him to be remembered, too. To Miles McPherson, a former Charger, longtime friend and pastor at the Rock Church, "Junior was superman." When McPherson said that, heads nodded across the crowd.

The subject of Seau and how he changed or not in recent years appeared to make his friends uncomfortable. They knew that Seau sustained minor injuries in October 2010 when he drove his sport utility vehicle off a beachside cliff in Carlsbad, Calif., where it landed some 100 feet below the roadside.

Earlier that day, Seau was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence. Reports at that time said Seau's live-in girlfriend told the police Seau assaulted her during an argument.

Friends and the police declined to speculate about Seau's relationship with his girlfriend. They preferred to focus on the positive, and many kept coming back to the images that remained, like Seau, dressed perpetually in flip flops and board shorts, talking about surfing.

The last time Shawn Mitchell, the Chargers' chaplain, saw Seau, it was when the team inducted him into its Hall of Fame. That was in sharp contrast from when Mitchell visited Seau in the hospital after the crash, when Mitchell said Seau sat with tears streaming down his face, grateful to be alive. A "mishap," Mitchell called the incident.

Seau began his career with the Chargers in 1990 and was traded to Miami in 2003. After three injury-plagued seasons, the Dolphins released him. He signed a one-day contract with the Chargers in August 2006 to announce his retirement. Four days later, he signed with the New England Patriots and played for the 2007 team that went undefeated in the regular season and lost to the Giants in the Super Bowl.

His last season in the N.F.L. was 2009. He finished his career with 1,524 tackles, 56 ½ sacks and 18 interceptions.

The N.F.L., the N.F.L. Players' Association and each of the three teams Seau played for released statements on Wednesday. All said they were deeply saddened.

"Of all the players I've been around, he's the one who makes you most proud," said Bobby Beathard, once the general manager of the Chargers. "It's just sad. It's hard to believe that now there's no Junior."

Family members gathered in front of the house Wednesday, singing songs and praying. Children burst into tears. A makeshift memorial sprouted in front of the house, with flower bouquets and candles and a sign that read, "We will miss you."

Later in the afternoon, another van pulled up in front of the house, to take Seau's mother from the scene. Two relatives helped her inside as she told the crowd she appreciated how so many of them loved her son.