'I'm Not Her Daddy, But I'll Never Forget Her,' Broken Arrow Man Says About Victim

A Broken Arrow couple said they had just arrived at the OSU homecoming parade, and seconds later found themselves in the middle of tragedy and chaos.

They joined the spectators to watch the celebration, only to witness a car busting through the barricade and plowing through the crowd.
Harry Elzo is a U.S. Army veteran, but he said he was not prepared for what he experienced on Saturday.

Harry and his girlfriend Stacy were in Stillwater to visit his daughter, who's a freshman at OSU.

They never thought they'd find themselves in the middle of death and devastation.

"I look at her, and I said, ‘we need to help those people,’" Elzo said.

And so he did.

Elzo said his Army training must have kicked in, or maybe it was the influence of his mother, who worked as a nurse.

“It just felt natural to go help,” he said. “If I was laying in the middle of the road, I'd want someone to help me. If my kid was laying in the middle of the road, I would hope someone would help them.”

Special Coverage: OSU Homecoming Tragedy

He came across a young woman bleeding so heavily, he knew there was nothing he could do.

"Could've been my daughter,” he said. “Could have been your daughter. Could've been anybody's daughter... I turned around… and when I did, the young lady that I ran to that I thought I was going to help, they'd already put a blanket on her,” he said.

He later learned she was 23-year-old Nakita Prabhakar Nakal, an MBA student from India who attended the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond.

“I'm not her daddy, but I'll never forget her," Elzo said.

He said he had trouble sleeping Saturday night, and is trying to surround himself with friends, family, people he loves to keep his mind off of the crash.

"I feel better today,” he said. “Seems like when I'm by myself it's worse. You think about it more."

Harry says luckily his daughter overslept and was not at the parade on Saturday morning.