Dozens of police officers milled in and around the venue on Sunday, piecing together what happened the night before, when 48-year-old Pitasoni Tali Ulavalu was killed in a violent brawl.

It's a scene Canberra locals aren't used to seeing, a large cordoned off criminal investigation in the middle of the city.

In some ways it seemed a normal Sunday morning in Civic, with diners arriving at Gus' Place or into the Canberra Centre.

But now there was a more grisly backdrop, where just hours before revellers witnessed the bloody end to a man's life in the street.

Police have confirmed the incident started inside the Kokomo's bar and spilled out onto the street, where evidence markings show a large crime scene spread from the Bunda and Genge street intersection further down Genge Street.

It's been reported Mr Ulavalu was stabbed inside the venue, but police are investigating how he came to die on the footpath outside. The extensive CCTV inside the venue and out on the streets is already being analysed, as is mobile phone footage from witnesses who have already come forward.

Glass was smashed across the road and forensic investigators measured and analysed blood spattered over a parked four-wheel-drive on Genge Street.

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Officers were seen carrying many separate bags of evidence away from the scene, ahead of an investigation that will need to determine just how many people were involved in the brawl, that also caused non-life-threatening injuries to another man.

Some passers-by were none-the-wiser and asked what had happened, while others were clearly there to see where Mr Ulavalu, known to many as Soni, had lost his life.

Late in the morning a handful of young men came to see the venue, to grieve and to take photos.

Police were expected to clear the scene by late on Sunday afternoon, but the investigation, and the grief, will last much longer.