Texas Teen Who Survived Family Shooting Quotes Harry Potter at Memorial

Cassidy Stay, the 15-year-old who survived a shooting rampage that killed her parents and four siblings in the Houston area on Wednesday, said this weekend that her family is “in a much better place” and that she’ll “be able to see them again one day.”

“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light,” said Stay, quoting a line from the Harry Potter series, at a Saturday “celebration of life” that drew more than 400 people, NBC News reports.

Stay’s family members were shot execution-style, allegedly by Ronald Lee Haskell, the former husband of Stay’s aunt. Stay played dead when she was injured by a bullet, but afterwards she was able to identify the shooter to police and warn that he might head to her grandparents’ home.

“We continue to be in awe of how she was able to save us,” Roger Lyon, Stay’s maternal grandfather, said at the event. “Without her courage and quick thinking, we might be mourning the death of 20 … people today.”

Police have not said what specifically triggered the attack, but authorities have said it was related to a domestic dispute. Haskell has been charged with capital murder.

[NBC]