Friends of Rutland police ­officer Sean P. Cooney say the gregarious young man had broken up a fight shortly before he was found dead in a street early Friday in Indianapolis.

As police there investigate the apparent homicide of the part-time officer, friends and family are devastated and are trying to make sense of the death of Cooney, a man who was still mourning the loss of his best friend.

Cooney, 27, of Worcester, had gone to Indianapolis to gather some items bequeathed to him by the family of his best friend, Norman Lesage, who died in April. Cooney was planning to bring home a truck ­Lesage had been restoring and hoped to finish the project himself, friends said.

But in the early morning hours Friday, Indianapolis ­police went to the 100 block of St. Clair Street after a caller told 911 dispatchers “a male subject is down, bleeding from the head, and is unresponsive.” They found Cooney at about 2:30 a.m. Friday in an area that public information officer ­Kendale Adams said is primarily residential and not a high-crime area.

Cooney suffered apparent head trauma. He was taken to Wishard ­Memorial Hospital, where he died.

Detectives were scouring the scene for evidence and talking to witnesses and other “persons of ­interest.”

No arrests had been made by late Friday, and a police spokesman said he did not ­expect any further information to be released until Monday.