60 Minutes reports: Tragedy in Newtown

The following is a script of "Newtown" which aired on Dec. 16, 2012. Scott Pelley is thecorrespondent. Nicole Young, Bob Anderson and Michael Radutzky, producers.

It is a Sunday of sorrow for Newtown, Conn., and for the nation. This afternoon, hundreds ofresidents walked the road to Sandy Hook Elementary School where, on Friday, 26 people weremurdered, 20 of them children in the first grade. President Obama has been in Newtown tonight fora memorial service.

First reports of this tragedy have turned out to be inaccurate. We were told that the gunman'smother was a teacher at the school, that he was allowed in because he was recognized, and that hetargeted his mother's classroom with two handguns. Well tonight, we know that all of that is wrong.Here's what we do know as told by people who knew the gunman and by one woman at the schoolthat he approached, but did not kill.

That woman is Sally Cox, the school nurse. This picture was taken shortly after she left Sandy HookElementary on Friday. She's been the school nurse there 15 years. And she told us that Fridaymorning began with comforting routine; 9:10 Pledge of Allegiance, 9:15 outside doors locked. Thencame 9:30.

Sally Cox: All of a sudden I heard a very loud popping noise. I mean a noise that I've never, everheard before. And my first thought was, was this something with the heating-- something-- or didsomething fall? And, I called out to the secretary, "Barb, what is that?" And then she called out to meby name. She said, "Sally." And I could just hear, like, fear in her voice.

Scott Pelley: It was something about the way Barb called out your name?

Sally Cox: Yes. Yeah. She just had this horrible sound of fear in her voice. That's what made me just--'cause I think I was about ready to go to see what was going on. The popping kept going off. And Ijust dove underneath my computer desk. The back of the desk has a small opening for, like, wires tocome out. And I just peeked. I could see his feet and his legs from the knees down. And he-- his feetwere facing in my direction. And I just froze with fear. And then he just-- it was just seconds andthen he turned around and I could hear him walk out. I heard the door close and then I just heardpopping starting all over again. And then the secretary, she was down behind my desk and we pulledthe phone off the desk and she called 911.

Scott Pelley: And she said what?

Sally Cox: She said-- I-- she said, "We have a shoo-- please send help right away. We have a shooterin the building." And then we just wanted to get out of there. And then we just ran into my bigsupply closet and we ran into the closet. We pulled that door closed. So we were behind two lockeddoors. And we could just hear the popping continue. And we heard screams. There's nothing wecould do. You know? It was just a helpless, horrible feeling. You know? And just like a nightmarethat-- couldn't believe that-- you know, you just think it's a bad dream. After some time, I think it wasabout 11:15, so we had been in that closet for about an hour and a half, I opened the door and Ipeeked out, 'cause my office has a lot of windows and looks into the courtyard. And I just saw whatlooked like maybe SWAT people but I didn't know, you know, who they were. I didn't know if therewere other shooters. And it wasn't until 1:15 when I-- somebody was jiggling the door. And-- butnobody called out. So I decided to be brave enough and open that door into the office and a lot ofstate police officers were there at that point. And they were very surprised to see me.

Scott Pelley; You were in the closet for about four hours?

Sally Cox: Close to it. Yeah. Yeah. Just fearful.

Scott Pelley: I wonder what the standard security at the school is in terms of allowing visitors intothe building and that sort of thing. How is it supposed to work?

Sally Cox: We do our Pledge of Allegiance at 9:10. And then five minutes later the doors are locked.All the doors and all-- going around the whole building. And then when be--when people come theyhave to buzz. There's a camera. They push a button. It buzzes in the office and we buzz them in.

Scott Pelley: How long has that been true?

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