A Cobb County high school graduate was gunned down at a block party Friday night in Alabama.

Bobby “B.J.” Smith, 21, was a senior finance major at Tuskegee University, where he played on the tennis team. Smith died after being shot in the back during a block party, according to various reports.

Smith, a 2010 graduate of South Cobb High School, was remembered for his “infectious smile, a bigger than life personality, unlimited jokes and honestly a gift of mischievous adventure,” Ashley Hosey, the school’s principal, wrote in an online tribute.

Hosey said he last saw Smith, who often returned to his high school to visit, before the start of the school year.

“Our school and community are saddened at the loss of one of our brightest stars and highest flying eagles,” Hosey wrote. “He was taken away too soon and with an act of senseless violence.”

Smith was the father of a baby born less than a month ago, WSFA Channel 12 reported Sunday.

The Tuskegee Police Department and Alabama Bureau of Investigations are investigating the fatal shooting.