Nicole duFresne had come to New York like so many others before her, looking to chase acting dreams, working small jobs at odd hours in bars and offices while writing screenplays and taking casting calls in all the time that was left in between.

Early yesterday morning, duFresne, a 28-year-old actress from Minneapolis with dirty blonde hair and sea green eyes, was killed by a single bullet on a Lower East Side street after she attempted to prevent muggers from robbing her, her fiance, and another couple.

According to police, duFresne had finished her shift at Rockwood, a new bar and music club at 194 Allen St. at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday night. It was the club’s opening night, local bar owners said, and after her inaugural shift, she joined her fiance and another couple to celebrate. They went to a bar a few blocks away, Max Fish, and did not leave until just before closing, at about 3:30 a.m., police said.

As they began to make their way home, police said duFresne and her friends were accosted by a young black man and two black women, who demanded money.

As duFresne protested, police said the young black man pulled out a gun and fired one shot, which fatally struck her in the chest. He then snatched a purse that belonged to duFresne’s female friend, police said.

As of late yesterday evening, police detectives were combing the streets of the Lower East Side, knocking on the doors of nearby tenants and scrolling through footage of surveillance tape offered by local restaurants, in the hope of identifying the suspect.

A $2,000 award for information that could lead to the arrest of duFresne’s killer was advertised over microphones from police vans throughout the neighborhood.

Meanwhile, her many friends began to mourn. At her apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, more than 20 of her friends had come to sit in the confused kind of silence that follows tragedy.

“There was so much that she had to give to the world,” a close friend, Tim Doyle, said. “She could change your life just by meeting her.”

According to duFresne’s resume, which is posted on her Web site, nicoledufresne.com, she was a versatile actress, performing in Shakespearean classics such as “Much Ado About Nothing,” and a writer of six screenplays.

It was also not the first time duFresne had fallen victim to a crime. While studying as an undergraduate at Emerson College in Boston, she was raped, an act she said at the time shaped much of her artistic vision. She dedicated her first original play “Burning Cage” to a local therapist, Linda Johnson.

“Like so many victims of rape, I kept it a secret for months,” duFresne said of the act, cited in a story published by the TwinCities Independent Media Center.

“It was Linda who taught me the importance of dealing with tragedy head-on to come out of hiding.”