Houston Mall Shooting Live Updates: Police Kill Nathan Desai, Disgruntled Lawyer Armed With Numerous Weapons

UPDATE: 3:06 p.m. EDT -- A man who opened fire near a Houston shopping mall Monday morning was reportedly wearing a Nazi uniform. He was killed in a shootout with police after nine people were injured in the mass shooting, according to media reports.

UPDATE: 1:39 p.m. EDT -- Three of the nine victims in a mass shooting in Houston Monday morning have been released from a local hospital in good condition, according to media reports. Nathan DeSai, a local lawyer, reportedly opened fire on a public street because he was having problems with his law firm.

UPDATE: 1:25 p.m. EDT -- Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said thanked police officers for responding to a mass shooting in Houston Monday morning that left nine people with gun wounds. He said he was praying for the victims.

UPDATE: 12:50 p.m. EDT -- The father of a man killed by police during a mass shooting in Houston Monday morning said his son "was troubled by a downturn in business at his law office," according to media reports. After the law firm was shut down six months ago, Nathan DeSai continued to represent clients while working from home. The man said he called his son after the shooting, but the call went to voicemail.

UPDATE: 12:20 p.m. EDT -- The business partner of the suspect in a mass shooting Monday morning at a Houston mall said their law practice ended in February when they mutually decided to close it for economic reasons, according to a series of tweets from a local reporter. Ken McDonald, who said he and Nathan Desai had a legal practice together, told Houston Chronicle reporter St. John B. Smith in part that the suspect was "disgruntled."

UPDATE: 11:54 a.m. EDT -- There were no additional suspects in a mass shooting in Houston Monday morning that saw police kill a lone gunman who opened fire on a public street. He was not immediately identified, but police said he had worked as a lawyer.

UPDATE: 11:33 a.m. EDT -- Police were investigating a Porsche registered to Nathan Desai, a Texas lawyer, after a mass shooting Monday morning in Houston. Desai, 46, owns a condominuim apartment near where the shooting took place, local media reported. ​

UPDATE: 11:18 a.m. EDT -- Police say a man who opened fire Monday morning near a Houston shopping mall lived in the area. After he began shooting on a local street, people ran to the mall for cover. Houston police have not named the shooter, but said he was an attorney and "there were issues concerning his law firm."

UPDATE: 11:08 a.m. EDT -- Houston city officials said the threat of a mass shooting was over Monday morning after a gunman left nine people shot and wounded, one critically, near a shopping mall. But residents were still being told to stay away from the area.

Original story:

Nine people were shot and wounded, one critically, after a gunman opened Monday morning fire at a mall parking lot in Houston. The suspect was believed to be a disgruntled employee at a local law firm, the Associated Press reported.

Police Chief Martha Montalvo said at a news conference that the shooting began around 6:30 a.m. As police officers arrived at the crime scene, the gunman began firing at them. They returned fire and the man, who was not named, was killed.

"Steady shooting back and forth — it was a lot," Antoine Wilson, who was driving near the area at the time of the shooting, told ABC 13.

Lee Williams, who lives nearby, told ABC 13 he counted 50 shots after police arrived. "Once the police got here, they made me go back to my house," he said. "I heard a lot of back and forth."

Police found numerous weapons near the body and the suspect's Porsche, which was parked nearby. A bomb-squad robot was inspecting the vehicle, which is registered to attorney Nathan Desai.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told KTRK-TV the lawyer was "disgruntled."

"He was either fired or had a bad relationship with this law firm," Turner said. "The investigation is active. It's very, very early. We want to make sure there is no other gunman. We are checking every angle, I can assure you."

The shooting marked the latest incident of violence at a mall in the U.S. in recent days. A mall shooting in Washington state left five people dead Friday. A week earlier, a 20-year-old man stabbed 10 people at a Minnesota mall before he was fatally shot by an off-duty police officer.