Eddie McAllister was a security guard who had reportedly wrapped his shift and was having a meal with a friend when an argument turned deadly early Wednesday in Hawthorne.

McAllister, 56, was a loving father who “did not deserve” to have his life cut short by gun violence, family members say.

McAllister was shot and killed in the incident reported to Hawthorne police around 2 a.m. in the 3300 block of West Rosecrans Avenue. He was identified to The Times by his daughter, Emani McAllister.

“He was a loving person, a lovable person,” McAllister told The Times. “He’s awesome.”

According to Hawthorne police, officers sent to the location found a man with a gunshot wound. Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel attempted to revive him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

A suspect was quickly identified and “tracked to a nearby location in a neighboring city,” where the individual was arrested on suspicion of murder, according to a Hawthorne Police Department statement. The suspected gunman was not identified.

Family members told KABC that McAllister was dining with a friend after work when he became involved in an argument with another person and it turned physical.

“Honestly, he did not deserve this,” Emani McAllister said. “It’s just sad that he had to go out like that.”

She remembered her father warmly. As she spoke with The Times by phone, she was interrupted by a visitor who expressed their condolences and called Eddie “a cool guy.”

“If that doesn’t give you any more information,” she said, “everybody loves my dad.”

The McAllister family is no stranger to gun violence.

D’Nary Lamonte Fowler, 19, Emani’s brother, was killed by Los Angeles police on Jan. 2, 2011, amid an apparent robbery attempt.

In the wake of Fowler’s killing, his and McAllister’s mother, Tameco Brewster, founded a nonprofit for those grieving gun deaths, the Movement of Mourning Mothers Assn.

McAllister said she mourned those she had lost to gun violence, “and now I include my dad.”