CBS News

Niamh Winright’s worst nightmare began with a loud bang. Then came the sound of shattering glass and the piercing echoes of gunfire. Reality set in. She was caught in the middle of a school shooting. On the morning of Oct. 24, 2022, panic swept through the joint campus of the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School and the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience in St. Louis, Missouri. The 911 calls began pouring in as a gunman entered the building. “I saw a gentleman with a rifle shoot at the door and go in,” one caller told dispatchers. “I don’t want to die. Please. Please,” said one student in another frantic 911 call. Winright, who lives with autoimmune rheumatoid arthritis and uses a cane, suddenly found herself crammed into a corner with her classmates. Her cane was knocked away during the scramble for safety.