At home in Mililani, it was pretty much the same.

Except small things seemed to bother him.

Sunday afternoon, Lau, 45, allegedly rampaged through his next-door neighbors' home, fatally shooting Randall and Carol Kim, their friend Terry Nakasone and then himself, leaving a stunned community asking why.

In the weeks leading to Sunday's shooting spree, Lau had complained to police about a car from next door blocking his driveway. Last Friday, Lau reported a prowler on the side of his residence, police said. Neighbors told police that Lau had also complained about the Kims' friends parking too close to his driveway and children there making too much noise.

"He was more than normally protective of his property," recalled Kim family friend Marcus Darling. "If the bumper was over the line (into his driveway), he'd call the police. The average person wouldn't care about that."

Louis Ferreira, a longtime friend of Randall and Carol Kim, said the Kims were never rowdy.

"It was just them enjoying their property," he said.

He called Lau "a whining kind of neighbor." The Kims and Laus were neighbors for six years.

"If the car was not a foot-and-a-half away from his driveway, we were afraid he would tow our cars."

Police Lt. Alan Napoleon said two weapons registered to Lau, a 9mm semiautomatic and a .45-caliber handgun, were used in the assault.

Several minutes after the first shots were fired, Carol Kim, 33, made a frantic call to authorities for help, only to be confronted by Lau in the home's upstairs master bedroom.

Napoleon said the three victims - the Kims and Terry L.M. Nakasone, 33 - were hit with multiple gunshots to the head and body. Lau died from a single gunshot to the head.

The tragedy began unfolding about 4:30 p.m. when the Kims' Awiki Street neighbors heard gunshots.

Police said Nakasone's husband, Miles, had been in the office with Randall Kim, who ran outside to check after hearing gunshots.

When Nakasone went outside, he saw his friend on the ground and the Kims' neighbor walking into the home with a handgun, police said. Miles Nakasone reportedly shooed away the Kims' two children - Carly, 6, and Toby, 9 - as they arrived home and fled to get help.

More gunfire was heard after Lau entered the two-story home.

Police said an officer on patrol in the area heard the gunshots and arrived within 36 seconds. Another officer arrived within four minutes of the first officer's call. Two more units arrived minutes later.

The Special Services Division arrived around 6:30, got no response from inside the house, and went inside about 7:30, Napoleon said.

They found Randall Kim sprawled on a pathway just outside his home office. Terry Nakasone was dead in one upstairs bedroom, Carol Kim and Lau in another.

"Randall would never get into a confrontation with him (Lau)," said Ferreira. "He'd just walk away. Numerous times."

Ferreira said Randall Kim and Carol had been married about 10 years. She worked for Qantas Airways.

"They did an incredible job with the kids," Ferreira said. "They were the perfect family. And now the kids are without parents."

He said the children are staying with Randall Kim's brother, Robin.

Costa said Lau, who was married, had been a senior account clerk in the Division of Motor Vehicles and Licensing for four years.

Randall Kim was a former professional surfer who mastered the waves off Ala Moana Beach and was fortunate enough to find a job connected to the sport he loved.

But for many in Hawaii, Kim and his wife, Carol, will be remembered more for their strong religious convictions - beliefs, friends say, that they put into practice in their family and the community.

"We know that Randall and Carol, they're totally in heaven," said the Rev. Mike Stangel of the North Shore Christian Fellowship. "I mean, that's not even an issue."

Kim, 36, was a "fabulous man" who worked 13 years as Hawaii sales representative for Billabong, an Australian company that markets surfing products, said Bob Hurley, president of Billabong USA in Costa Mesa, Calif.

"Nothing negative ever came across my plate when it came to Randall Kim," said Mike Latronic, a former surfing team captain for Billabong and now associate editor of H3O magazine.

Bernie Baker, a senior contributing editor for Surfer magazine who knew Kim for nearly 25 years, said Kim was "definitely one of Hawaii's best surfers, one of our stars" when he joined the pro circuit in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Kim maintained his upbeat demeanor when his parents got divorced and when his wife left him before they had children and returned to her native Australia for a while, said longtime friend Tony Higa.

"I remember talking to him in the water and he said, 'I'm not giving up, I'm claiming this marriage as ours,'" said Higa, a roofing estimator. "Then he came through it and the next thing I knew he had kids and was all smiles."

Kim also was a manager for Kaui Hill, the comedian known as Bu La'ia.

Kim was scheduled to appear at Magic Island this weekend at a surf and music festival of the Wave Riders Against Drugs, said event coordinator Tim Farley.

Farley said Kim and his family had flown to Kauai to speak at similar organization functions, and he was a role model for young surfers. He said the festival will be dedicated to the Kims. Plans are being made for a fund-raiser to help their two young children.

"There's a lot of heroes that we talk about, but if there's anyone who fits in the class of two unsung heroes, these are two of them," he said.