(CNN)Not long ago, two lifelong friends talked about all the cool gifts the little kids they knew were getting for Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan. Omar AbdelBaky, 24, jokingly complained that when he and Deah Shaddy Barakat grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, they didn't get fancy toy helicopters. Barakat, 23, asked his friend for his address. Two weeks later, a delivery guy dropped one of those helicopters at AbdelBaky's door. "That's who Deah was -- he gave without thinking twice about it. I want people to know that about him -- he was such a kind person," AbdelBaky said.
@highlight
They were "the best you can imagine an American kid to be," father says
@highlight
Friend: Deah Barakat was raising money for Syrian refugees and gave often to charity
@highlight
He, his wife and her sister were shot to death Tuesday; man facing murder charges
It was so hard, @placeholder said, to conceive of so much life suddenly snuffed out.