Suspect was caught in ‘quietest’ area

It was unclear how Nikolas Cruz got to Wyndham Lakes.

Cruz was arrested by a neighborhood pool.

CORAL SPRINGS — Authorities caught the suspected gunman in the Broward school shootings in what one resident called “the quietest neighborhood.” Authorities took Nikolas Cruz into custody by a pool within Wyndham Lakes, a gated community across the Sawgrass Expressway from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, said Brenda and Nick Sindicich, who have lived in the community for 18 years.

“It’s the quietest neighborhood,” Brenda Sindicich said of the community, a series of neighborhoods of single-family homes with garages about 15 miles southwest of Town Center of Boca Raton. “You always say it couldn’t happen here.”

It was not immediately clear Wednesday night how Cruz got from the high school to Wyndham Lakes. Some reports said Cruz — a student at the school not long ago — blended in with students during the commotion following the shooting.

Between 12 and 20 Broward Sheriff ’s Office vehicles and bands of yellow police tape blocked off the entrance to the community, off Coral Ridge Drive where the Sawgrass bends to the west and runs south, parallel to the Everglades Wildlife Management Area, at about 3 p.m. Wednesday.

The scene was followed by an ambulance rushing out of the community with a police escort, said a man who only gave his name as Ahmad, who said he graduated in 2016 from the high school where the shootings took place.

“I never thought this could happen at my school,” said Ahmad, who gave his age as 20. He captured video of police cars surrounding a portion of a gated subdivision with lights flashing.

Though Ahmad didn’t see police apprehend Cruz, he watched police officers swarm the area and shoo away bystanders. The neighborhood was blocked to reporters until at least 6 p.m.