Draven Rodriguez, a senior at Schenectady High School in New York, whose proposed yearbook photo of him, his cat, and lasers was widely celebrated across the Internet this fall, died on Thursday at the age of 17. The Times Union reports that the cause of death was suicide.

Rodriguez was born on October 6, 1997. "He made friends wherever he went," Rodriguez's father, Jonathan Stewart, told the Times Union. "He had friends all over the country—people he'd met at youth-leadership conferences, online, just around town."

"He wasn't trying to stir things up with it," Stewart said of his son's viral photo. "He honestly just wanted a silly photo because he had a great sense of humor."

Stewart told the Times Union that he believes the photo will still be included in the yearbook.