A 17-year-old recent graduate of Fairhope High School was shot dead near Demopolis early Saturday morning, shocking the tight-knit Fairhope community.

At 12:24 a.m. Saturday, the Demopolis Police Department received a call reporting a shooting in Gallion, a small community several miles east of Demopolis, according to a statement issued by the department.

When officers arrived on the scene they found the teen - whose name the police have not released but has been confirmed by family and friends as recent Fairhope High graduate Lauren Wright, according to WKRG - suffering from a gunshot wound. Emergency responders took her to the emergency room at Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital in Demopolis, where she died Saturday morning.

Police arrested Demopolis resident Dalton Martin Jowers, 19, early Saturday and he has been charged with the murder of Wright, Chief Tommie Reese, the Demopolis director of public safety said in the police statement.

Wright worked at the Fairhope restaurant Pinzone's Italian Downtown, which plans to host a fundraiser and tribute event for Wright at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.

"Everything she touched turned to gold. There was nothing that baby couldn't do," Pinzone's owner Shelby Nelson told WKRG. "She was the most beautiful human being you could have ever met and she loved everybody all the time."

Wright, who reportedly wanted to attend culinary school, was in Demopolis visiting friends when she was killed, according to WKRG.

The Demopolis Police Department said Saturday that its criminal investigations division was still investigating the murder.