Cache of weapons inside car

Houston shooter Nathan Desai had ‘tiff’ with his firm.

A gunman who died in a shootout with officers after wounding nine people in Houston on Monday left black Porsche full of weapons near the scene, the city’s police chief said.

The shooter was identified as attorney Nathan Desai, the police said. The police said they were investigating whether the shooting was motivated by “issues at his firm”.

Houston mayor Sylvester Turner told local television station KTRK that it appeared the motivation for the shooting may have been the lawyer’s relationship with his firm, which “went awry”.

Violent crime in the US rose last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Monday. In 2015, there were 1,197,704 violent crimes, an increase of 3.9 per cent compared to the previous year.

Murder and non-negligent manslaughter increased 10.8 per cent, and firearms were involved in two-thirds of those cases. The release of the report comes as murder rates have risen in several US cities in 2015 and 2016.