Residents remain in shock after neighbor identified as active shooter

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Houston police have confirmed that attorney Nathan DeSai is the man who fired gunshots that injured nine people in West University on Monday morning. Residents are working to recover after their neighbor, who was heavily-armed with ammunition and raw anger, took aim at anyone who moved. 

Police say DeSai was wearing a vintage Nazi uniform as he opened fire along Weslayan Street, leaving six people wounded.
                
“I have glass embedded all in me," explains Alan Wakim who was simply driving to work when he realized bullets were being fired into his car. "I went to Methodist Hospital. The first one landed right here. The second shot hit and my mouth is open and the full force of the explosion of the windshield, it sprayed all over my eyes, all over my face. It went into my mouth.”

Fortunately, Wakim was not shot and he was soon back into the arms of his frantic wife. It turns out that DeSai was Wakim's neighbor and also lived in the same West University condominium complex. Officers exchanged gunshots with DeSai and he was shot to death. Nine people were injured as six of them were shot and three others hurt by flying glass, as DeSai randomly opened fire on Law Street, according to Houston police.

”The fact that he harmed innocent human beings that had absolutely nothing to do with his predicament, I have no sympathy for him,” says Wakim.

“All of his anguish that he felt inside of him exploded and now all of us are carrying a piece of it,” says West University resident Barbara Woods-Spofford. 

”He had no right to do what he did," explains Wakim whose body is covered in embedded glass from his shattered windshield. "Right now, I'm not sad I'm angry, They put my face in a brace kind of like Hannibal Lecter and sat there and had to pick all (the glass), and there's still some glass in there they think so I have to go back. 

As the mass shooting victims and the rest of the community attempt to heal, a teen from Spring is trying to help. He bought boxes of pizza, set up in the intersection of Law and Weslayan streets and he's giving away free slices. 

“I feel like a lot of people have forgotten how to be nice to each other so this is a little reminder,” says Josue Delgado.
 
”I’m grateful to be alive," adds Wakim. "God apparently wants me around for some reason.”

DeSai's father still lives in southwest Houston where DeSai was raised.He graduated from Hastings High School in the of Alief Independent School District.From June 2000 until April 2001, DeSai worked as a Dallas County Deputy District Attorney. His law firm in Houston folded in February as a result of poor profits. It had been open for 12 years.

By coincidence, Wakim made a delivery to DeSai just two weeks before the shooting. Wakim saw a box at the front gate and didn't want his neighbor's package to be stolen so, like a good neighbor, he took it to DeSai. 

“God knows what was in that package," says Wakim. "It could have been rounds of ammo for all I know.  Wouldn't that be ironic?,”

Houston police have not released a motive behind DeSai opening fire on his neighbors.