let's star first with jim acosta. the white house gathering intelligence about isis fighters in syria. do we know when he'll make a decision about air strikes? >> reporter: anderson, president obama has been meting with his top officials all week and more of that is expected, but josh earnest said he did not have a time frame for a decision. and when i pressed earnest earlier today on whether the president wanted to defeat isis, he said, of course, and the president's top advisers said that isis really can't be beaten without dealing with the group in syria, so that's a good indication of what's to come. still, the president has pulled back from the edge of taking military action before it's not out of the question here, anderson. >> he also didn't seek congressional authorization for air strikes in iraq. is there any new information about what he plans to do regarding congressional approval if there are air strikes in syria? >> reporter: yeah, a little bit new guidance from the administration tonight, anderson. that is an open question. a senior administration official says the white house is consulting with congress on isis in iraq and syria. but because the president has not yet made a decision on

syria, this official said it's too early to say whether he will seek authorization from congress. top white house aides do say the president has the authority to conduct military action in iraq, as the president and the administration have provided what are called war powers letters or reports to the congress. that gives them 60 days to direct military action before congress would have to vote to continue the mission. the president could theoretically launch air strikes against syria and provide another war powers letter to congress, but i talked to a key democratic congressman this evening, adam schiff, who sits on the house intelligence committee. he says that may not work legally. schiff and others in the president's party want mr. obama to go to congress and seek authorization if he goes into syria, but anderson, the white house is not making a commitment to do that at this point. >> all right, jim, appreciate the update. now, when it comes to congressional support about possible action against isis, president obama already has somebody in his corner that may come as a surprise. our chief congressional correspondent, dana bash, joins us live on what the president can expect from larwmakers. so if the president were to go

to congress, where does support stand? >> it's really mixed. there seems to be some robust support for the president to be much more aggressive with military air strikes, to confront isis, and to give him the power that he needs, if he thinks he needs it, from congress. but democrats are really split, and i think the answer to whether or not the president will come to congress for support and for authorization is whether or not the democrats in congress want him to do it. whether he can get the votes and maybe even more importantly, anderson, whether or not democrats, the house, they're all up for re-election. in the senate, you have the democrats fighting to keep control of the senate. and this is going to be potentially a very tough political vote for them. so we are hearing, my reporting, that of our producer, ted barrett, that there is a lot of reluctance from democrats on capitol hill to have to take this vote just before the election. >> and you're in kentucky, obviously, covering the tight senate race there. mitch mcconnell seeking re-election. he had something surprising to say to you, perhaps surprising,

about congressional authorization for air strikes. >> well, first of all, what was surprising is that he said that he supports what the president is doing right now. this is a man who at every turn slams the president in his re-election bid here, on everything, but this is one area where he says he thinks that the president is doing the right thing, with air strikes, and as you said, if the president were to come to congress, that he would very likely support authorization additional force. but, again, this is not necessarily all that popular, even here in kentucky. and i asked whether that could be risky for him and his re-election bid. you're here in a tough race, a lot of your colleagues are as well. is there any trepidation about having a politically explosive debate on authorization use of force right before an election? >> look, i think the security of the nation comes first. i believe and others believe that isis can hit us here at

home and that really trumps all over considerations and i'm anxious to hear what the president has in mind and i think he's very likely to get support. >> reporter: and anderson, you might be looking at me here in kentucky and saying, wait a minute, it's probably not that far fetched that this conservative state would support hawkish policy towards isis, but this is not 2001. this is not 2003. this is a different era. this is after two very long wars, and even, clearly, republican voters who i saw mitch mcconnell with today were asking very tough questions about whether isis really is that kind of threat here in the homeland. >> yeah, good questions to ask, dana. thanks. there's also breaking news tonight in the story that not one, but two american jihadists died in syria in recent days fighting for isis. the claim is coming from an anti-isis opposition group in syria. they say in addition to this man, douglas mcarthur mccain, who we reported on last night, a second american has been killed fighting for isis in recent days. they did not, however, name him or give out any other evidence

on that death. pamela brown joins me from san diego, where douglas mcarthur mccain went to school. do we know how long law enforcement were keeping track of mccain? >> reporter: well, anderson, law enforcement officials say authorities first became aware of douglas mccain back in the early 2000s because of his association with someone that authorities were interested in at that time. but back they bn, there was notg linking mccain to anything nefarious. but sources do tell me over the years, mccain had several different soerkts that authorities were aware of, including one person, a friend from minneapolis, who actually traveled to somalia and was killed there, apparently by committing jihad. and authorities say in this case, with mccain, that they were aware that he might be planning to travel over to syria and they became increasingly concerned once they learned after the fact that he had traveled to turkey, the gateway into syria, they were able to glean some information from some of his associates in minneapolis and that made him the subject of scrutiny. just in the past few months.

but anderson, important to remember here that you have to meet a certain threshold of probable cause before you out an american on a no-fly list to travel overseas. and a big concern with these fighter that is america could travel to europe, cross borders, go from turkey into syria. in mccain's case, he was put on a special list of americans believed to be linked to militant groups once he already traveled overseas. >> you're at the college where this guy, douglas mcarthur mccain went to school. any reaction from people there on the news that he died fig fighting for isis? >> reporter: the reaction is really just shock, anderson. we have spoken to people who say they knew douglas mccain. he studied here at san diego city college and studied arabic, we learned. and he also, last year, we learned, worked with a company that helped people with disabilities. and in fact, my colleague, dan simon, interviewed one of those people, anderson, and this person says that from his knowledge that mccain was a terrific guy. that was a direct quote from this person. that he knew that he was

religious, that sometimes mccain would pray inside his apartment, but that he never expressed any extremist views. and his family is echoing the same type of sentiment, saying that he never indicated that he would sympathize with isis until recently they saw some of his facebook posts and social media posts. but by all accounts, they're very surprised by the fact that he was allegedly aligned with isis. anderson? >> pamela, appreciate the reporting. thanks. quick reminder, make sure you set your dvr. you can watch "360" wherever you want. just ahead, the best possible ending for one american journalist held captive in syria for nearly two years. peter theo curtis, he's back home tonight with his mom and the rest of his family. what he said when he faced cameras for the first time today. plus, a mom's desperate plea to isis to free her son, still being held, journalist steven sotloff.

in the span of just about a week, several american families have received life changing news about their loved ones who were seized by terrorist groups in syria. tonight, peter theo curtis is back home in massachusetts, his nearly two-year deal finally over. captured and held by an al nusra front, he was released on tuesday. today, he spoke publicly for the first time since that release. >> in the days following my release on sunday, i have learned bit by bit that there have been literally hundreds of people, brave, determined, and big-hearted people all over the world, working for my release.

they've been working for two years on this. i had no idea when i was in prison, i had no idea that so much effort was being expended on my behalf. and now having found out, i am just overwhelmed with emotion. i am also overwhelmed by one other thing, and that is that total strangers have been coming up to me and saying, hey, we're glad you're home, welcome home, welcome back, glad you're safe, good to see you. so i suddenly remember how good the american people are and what kindness they have in their hearts. and to all those people, i say a huge thank you from my heart, from the bottom of my heart. >> curtis told reporters he'd have more to say later, but right now he needs to focus on reuniting with his family, understandably. the family of steven sotloff is praying that they, too, will see their son again. he's being held by isis, the terror group that beheaded journalist james foley and has vowed to kill sotloff, also a journalist. today, sotloff's mom made a plea, asking isis to spare her son's life.

>> i'm sending this message to you, abu bakar al hosseini, the caliph of the islamic state, i am shirley sotloff. my son, steven, is in your hands. steven is a journalist who traveled to the middle east to cover the suffering of muslims at the hand of tyrants. steven is a loyal and generous son, brother, and grandson. he is an honorable man and has always tried to help the weak. we have not seen steven for over a year and we miss him very much. we want to see him home safe and sound and to hug him. since steven's capture, i have learned a lot about islam. i've learned that islam teaches that no individual should be held responsible for the sins of others. steven has no control over the actions of the u.s. government.

he's an innocent journalist. i've always learned that you, the caliph, can grant amnesty. i ask you to please release my child. as a mother, i ask for justice to be merciful, and not punish my son for marts he has no control over. i ask you to use your authority to spare his life, and to follow the examples set by the prophet muhammad, who protected people of the book. i want what every mother want, to live to see her children's children. i plead with you to grant me this. >> it's hard to imagine the horror of what she has been through. joining new now is dan o'shea, a former navy s.e.a.l., who was coordinator of the hostage working group in iraq, from 2004 to 2006. he's also co-founder of grom technologies, a firm that specializes in recovering kidnapping victims. dan, this plea from steven sotloff's mom, how much does a video like this help? does it? >> well, it's gut wrenching to

watch that. we've watched that many times in iraq. joe carroll's family did this same, and ultimately, it ended up getting joe back, but unfortunately, jill was not he would held by al qaeda, and al qaeda just released a hostage, and there's a whole background story on that. but isis has already proven that they're willing to behead anyone, iraqi, christians, shia, so it just -- we've got a new group that's taken it to the new level. so a plea coming from a family -- i mean, she hit all the right chords to try to stress the value of family and his personality and him being an honorable person, but at the end of the day, it probably will fall on deaf ears, from my personal perspective and opinion >> right now, is there an outside actor or government who has influence on a group like isis? i mean, as you said, the al nusra front, many believe qatar

was behind them from the get-go and has given them financial support, whether or not there was an dwaul deal struck for theo curtis, which probably seems likely on some level, but is there a similar outside actor that has an influence on isis? >> well, the influence that groups had in the past where the gulf states were financing terrorism, the al qaeda groups, it's really because they were financing with money. but as we know, isis is flush with cash. they scored -- they took over the bank of mosul, half a billion dollars, purportedly, and now they're getting $3 million a day from oil revenues with or something in that neighborhood. so isis does not need money. and the gulf states are probably terrified of isis, because isis, trust me, when they establish their caliph state, they intend to expand it. so it will be hard to know if any nation state, from qatar to saudi, if any of those nation states have any influence on isis as a whole. they probably have reason to

fear them just as the west does. >> in general, everything i've been told about kidnappings is that it's usually the strategy to try to decrease the value of the hostage. news companies don't report, often, out of respect, and for that very same reason, to not bolster the idea that this is a valuable hostage, it's a difficult thing, when isis has made it public that, for instance, that they're holding steven sotloff. is that still the recommended way to go about it? to try to decrease the value? >> well, absolutely. that's what you try to do it. but the reality is, you know, the fact that u.s. policy, presume that we don't negotiate with terrorists, it's that this is how terrorist groups negotiate with us. so you just had sotloff's mother make an emotioned plea to these terrorists. and that's a plea that is going to weigh on everyone. it's having that impact. it's causing people to call up and why we should not hold the u.s. government responsible for her son, and a lot of people to

feel that way. so this is how the game is played with these guys, this back and forth. and it's gut wrenching, but, you know, you know, their hand was forced. the sotloff's hand was forced when her son appeared in that video. so she, by keeping it quiet initially was the right track to take, but now that her son's life is really, you know, in the hands of this leader right now, making that emotional plea, i don't think it will lead to a positive result. but at this point, you've got to go after every straw you can grasp. so the family was probably right in making that plea, to try and get some kind of international demand to focus on this -- on her son's case in particular. >> did you find, when you were working in iraq, that every group had some sort of a price, financial or otherwise, at which they would make a deal? or were there some groups who simply had ideological motivation and/or propaganda motivation, and they were going to go ahead and publicly execute

that captive, no matter what? >> yes, there were -- i mean, in my tour in iraq, there were over 80 named kidnapping groups in which they fell in the four quadrants. there was the shia groups, the sunni, and hard-core al qaeda groups that were ideologically driven and then just random criminals. so every different -- every case was usually a different actor playing. but the challenge here is that al qaeda was in the beheading game early on, but they received such worldwide condemnation that even the leadership, al zawahiri sent a message and said, knock this off, this beheading is not helping. they beheaded an irish aid worker who had been in iraq for 20 years helping the poor, and there was such an outpouring of disgust within the arab world that even al qaeda saw the tea leaves. but isis on this hand, they don't care. and that's where they've taken it to the next level. they're really al qaeda 2.0, and that's why these pleas from the

family, international nation states that have influence, it's not probably working. and one caveat here to bring up, i just saw an article, 15% of france supports isis. and if you go to the 18 to 24-year-old bracket, it's upwards of 20%. so that's the problem, they're winning the perception battle. so that's scary. this is, again, a new evolution to the threat and isis is really a much bigger, broader threat, because they've established land base held territory. al qaeda never did this beyond cities like fallujah. isis is a new and improved threat and need to be taken very seriously. >> for more on the story, go to cnn.com. coming up, more than two weeks later, there are a lot of questions about michael brown's killing, including whether officer darren wilson acted correctly when he opened fire. we haven't seen really any forensic evidence. but tonight, we'll give you an up-close look at police

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was police officer darren wilson justified in shooting and killing michael brown? the unarmed 18-year-old was laid to rest this week. his family is demanding justice. much remains in dispute about the shooting, of course, and none of the forensic evidence has been released. several investigations are

underway, a grand jury is hearing testimony. brown's death sparked days of protests, as you know, and in the middle of it, ferguson's police chief said they were already right to take steps to try to repair their procedures and their image. >> it's our first priority to address it, to fix what's wrong. we're working very closely now with the department of justice, community relations office. and they're making recommendations for us to -- for training is and things to work and get involved with the community, that is at odds with us now. and to rebuild their trust and that relationship. >> well, there are special programs for police officers. tonight, gary tuchman takes us inside a one of a kind lab where the sole focus is research on police confrontations like the one between darren wilson and michael brown, that quickly spiral out of control. here's gary's report. >> reporter: this spokane police officer is getting wired so his

brain functions can be monitored as he gets ready to make life and death decisions. spokane police! police department! hey, hey! talk to me! >> reporter: decisions in a most unique laboratory. >> what are you doing?! hey! let me see -- [ gunfire ] >> reporter: corporal jordan ferguson is one of many police officers, military members, and civilians who have volunteered time in this violence confrontation lab, complete with frighteningly realistic actors on a huge virtual reality screen. >> you receive a call from a person who says a convenience store is being robbed. do you understand? >> yes. >> stand by. >> hey! hey! back up! back up! back up! put your hands up! put your hands up! drop the knife. right now! drop it! >> reporter: while the volunteers make split-second decisions, brain waves and heart rates are checked. it's all part of an ambitious research project at washington state university. partly funded by the defense department. with the goal of improving justice in america.

professor brian villa is the man in charge. >> we don't know yet, still, a hundred and some years, since teddy roosevelt had the first police firearms training in new york. we still don't know whether there's a connection between the training we give police officers and their performance in a combat situation. >> reporter: sergeant terry pareneger is told he has pulled over a stolen car. >> can i see your driver's license, registration, and proof of snuinsurance. >> you want my driver's license? >> i do. [ screaming ] >> they say these volunteers hearts are usually racing, because it's very realistic. findings will be released by the end of the year. the researchers are claiming that volunteers of all races often view african-american suspects as more threatening than white suspects, but they may have subconsciously

overcompensated because of that bias. >> the surprise was that they were more restrained in shooting african-americans than they were whites. >> police officer! let me see your hands! you at the counter, let me see your hands. don't move! stop, stop! >> the officer never knew if the man had a gun, but did not shoot. >> sometimes, we don't know if we made the right decision or the wrong decision. we make a decision and then we live with it for the rest of our lives. >> reporter: with the cops guiding me, i pull over a suspicious car with a broken taillight. >> hello, sir. your taillight's broken. do you know that? sir, sir, take your hands out of your pockets -- sir! sir. take your hands out of your pockets! sir! put your hands on the steering wheel! sir, you're not listening. sir, hands on the -- okay, thank you! that guy looked like he was getting a gun out, so i took the gun out, didn't point it at him, proper way to deal with it. >> absolutely. >> hey, stop!

stop! there is a lot more to learn as these researchers try to make life safer for citizens and for the cops who serve them. gary tuchman, cnn, spokane, washington. >> i want to dig deeper on police confrontations. joining me now, general counsel of the st. louis police officer's association and phillip ateeva, assistant professor of psychology at ucla. phillip, the fact the volunteers of all races often view the african-american suspects as more threatening than the white ones, but were actually more restrained in shooting the african-americans than they were the white suspects, what do you make of that? is that in line at all with your understanding of how things actually play out? >> well, it can be. and i think one of the really important things to understand is that the specific situation that the officer might be in, that's going to determine a whole heck of a lot about how their attitudes translate into behavior. it could be that if i see them as more of a threat, but i feel generally safe around me, that i'm going to be more restrained. on the other hand, if i feel

like there's a threat and i generally believe that my life is in danger, we might see it go the other direction, and that's what we see in some of the l laboratory research that we've seen with other police officers in other simulations. >> neil, in terms of the connection that the police officers get and their performance in a combat situation, you say it's important to understand the speed at which these instances play out. even watching the video, you get a sense of how quickly these things can occur. >> that really is the important part of this. people don't realize how quickly these things can transcend into lethal situations. so what you hope is that because it does happen so quickly, is that that training will kick in. but, you know, of course, the downside of that is that because it happens so fast, the training does kick in, you respond according to the training, and then you have to stand back and look at it. you may have made a bad decision, a good decision, but made a decision based upon what you saw and how you were trained. you hope it's the right one,

anderson, but it's not aullways the right one. >> and phillip, you've said that we don't know if the racial disparities are from the actions of law enforcement or if they're picking up on bad things before contact with law enforcement. can you explain that? >> that's exactly right. so we've been seeing a lot of stories recently on the disparity between the residents in ferguson and the police department in terms of the demographics. the residents of ferguson have political representation. the residents of ferguson and who gets pulled over for crimes. but we don't know if the disparity is because of what police officers are doing, the policies of the police department, or maybe it's discrimination, bias, or something else in education, in housing, in health care, in employment. and so we've got to take a look at these police outcomes as something broader than just what the police do. it's not a racial problem with police, it's a racial disparities issues that's as old as america itself. >> is the problem can be larger than the local police force? >> that's exactly right. and if we think of it as just it's just this one officer and

this one individual who unfortunately ended up dead, at the end of it, the forensic evidence is going to be important. we need to be respectful of the family, because, after all, their child has been taken off this earth, but the problem of race and policing or race in america is always bigger than just the one incident. and so when we get myopic on it, we can also get amnesiac on it. this happened a number of years ago in l.a., it happened in watts, it happened in newark. and if we forget those things, we do end up being doomed to repeat them. >> in terms of the level of force that police are allowed to use in responding to a situation, allows for the fact that police officers are forced to make split-second decisions, doesn't it? >> yeah, it does. and again, the legal standard is you can act reasonably to prevent yourself from obviously being the victim of force and you can use that force, which is necessary to protect you. and i will tell you that i think all of these studies and this sort of analysis is so very, very important. we have so many resources that

we can now use to try and better understand what an officer is going to see and what an officer is going to feel. if we can implement that and teach and train an officer to be a safer officer, everybody, everybody is served by that. >> phillip, though, in your research, you found or you say that the vast majority of police officers do try to do the right thing? >> that's absolutely right. the vast majority of any human being tries to do the right thing, and what we're talking about, unfortunately, is a small number of cases, a small number of the things that any individual officer does, that have tragic and life-ending consequences. that's why it's really important, when you deal with any small number, with well-meaning people, to be looking at the broadst possible picture. and one of the things that i hopes comes out of this terrible tragedy is that we start taking the issues of race and law enforcement seriously by tracking not just the behavior of individual officers, but seeing how often these kinds of tragedies happen in general. we've had a tragedy in ferguson, but we've gotten embarrassment by the fact that we have no idea

how often individuals are shot by police nationwide, because the data are not tracked. we need a national database on that plus a whole other host of factors, and the good news is, law enforcement agrees, and they want to create that database. >> interesting. >> anderson, if i could throw out, we are very careful in st. louis to make sure that we do track this information. now, the problem is, what do we do with it? so we've got large compilations that aren't really being utilized to understand this. and in the last six months, oddly, there have been efforts by the st. louis police department to really try and understand what goes on. again, to make it a better and a safer world that we all live in. and that data compilation is extremely important. i couldn't agree more with the professor. >> neil, appreciate it, and phillip, thanks very much. up next, a verdict in a case that has no shortage of heartbreak to go around. a father, accused of murdering the drunk driver who had just killed his two young sons. we'll tell you what a jury in texas has decided.

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welcome back. this kind of case has no winners, only lives, ended in lives shattered. a jury in texas today found a man not guilty in the murder of a drunk driver who had killed his sons. local media reportses say in 2012, david barajas and his two sons who were pushing their truck down a road near hatheir home south of houston when a 20-year-old man, jose banda jr., hit and killed the two boys, who were ages 11 and 12. prosecutors say the father then shot and killed the drunk driver. after being acquitted today, the father says he is still destroyed and missing his sons, as always, but a weight has been lifted. >> i'm not happy, but can i move forward with my life.

it's closure for me. i can proceed with things that i want to do in life, with my family. >> joining me now, senior legal analyst, jeffrey toobin, and mark o'mara, george zimmerman's former attorney. jeff, obviously, this is just a horrific case all-around. i think probably, everybody at one point or another, if someone killed loved ones of mine, how would i act? do you think that kind of thing weighs on the mind of a jury? >> you can bet, they're human beings. and what the defense did in this case, which i think was very clever, they didn't exactly say, he had it coming, he deserved it, they gave the jury an opportunity to sit -- to acquit, but on the evidence that was before them. there was no eyewitness. there was never a gun recovered. there sure didn't seem like there were any other suspects, but the jury could say --

>> there's just not enough to say beyond a reasonable doubt. >> yes, even though you know that, you know, the human factor was very big in a case like this. >> mark, do you think it could have just come down to the fact that there was reasonable doubt, or that the police failed to produce a murder weapon, the residue on his hands, you know, turned out negative? >> well, it certainly wasn't part of jury nullification or a jury pardon, it just seems that way. but i look at it a bit more concerning. i'm wondering if there wasn't somewhat of a confederacy of near anesthesia in a case like this. because somehow, many witnesses who seemed to be readily available to say what they may have seen came in to testify that they didn't see it. the two young boys who were there testified that they didn't quite see a gun, though they heard the gunshot from feet away. the other person who saw the man run through a house and come back and heard a gunshot right afterwards says, but i can't tell you for sure it was the defendant. a gun residue test that doesn't show up anything. i'm wondering if this may not

have been a little bit more sinister, and that would trouble me, that this may have been played in a way to virtually assure an acquittal. >> so, in that sense, you're saying possibly the prosecution itself was part of that? >> if you look at it, the way the prosecution presented the case, i think they tried what they could. and i know this sounds kind of conspiratorial, but it seems as though the witnesses who may have otherwise been a bit more specific in their presentation of evidence leading to the guilt of the defendant, just never sort of struck home with that. and that left an opening for a jury acquittal. >> what about that, jeff? the father said he never left the scene. there were two witnesses who said he'd left for three minutes or so, which is theoretically long enough to go get a gun. >> and they found an empty holster in his house. it sure seemed like there was a lot of circumstantial evidence. you know what i thought of in this case, in the 1988 presidential debates, remember bernie shaw of cnn asked michael

dukakis, what would you if your wife was murdered. and it was a question about the death penalty. >> or sexuality assaulted. >> right, a horror -- in a very, you know, visceral question, and dukakis sort of, you know, he ignored the emotional aspect of the question. these cases have a lot of emotion to them. think about it. the guy lost two kids, right in front of him. you know, to a drunk driver. but obviously, you know, we can't have a society where, you know, people go enacting their own kind of vengeance. >> at one point, dash vcam vide was shown of the father administering cpr to run of the sons while the wife was crying out for help, just, in terms of the emotion of it, it's overwhelming. >> it is. i, you know, i would love to know if we could have an x-ray vision into the hearts of the jury, what they really saw, what they really thought was going on here. we'll never be able to do that, but i bet it was fairly complicated. >> mark, trials like this one, where the emotional component is

extraordinarily high, does it make it that much more difficult from a lawyer's perspective? >> well, i mean, it does, because you have to acknowledge the emotional aspect of it without playing into it too much. it is a real delicate balance, because you're there presenting evidence and defending against evidence, but if you're unaware, for example, in many of the murder cases of the emotions that wrap around it, and you then don't connect with the jury, because they certainly feel the emotions of a case where there's a death or in this case, three, and you have to be aware and sensitive to how you present to someone who's thinking that. >> mark, it was great having you on. jeff, stick around, because i want to ask you about this next story. a 9-year-old girl with an uzi accidentally killed an instructor at a shooting range who was showing her how to use the gun. will charges be filed against anyone? that's next. geico's been helping people save money for over 75 years. they've really stood the test of time. much like these majestic rocky mountains. which must be named after the... that would be rocky the flying squirrel,

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well, a 9-year-old girl from new jersey accidentally killed her instructor at a shooting range, a man who was teaching her how to fire a submachine gun. her parents were there with her at the shooting range in arizona, according to the local sheriff's office. it's a range where kids as young as 8 can shoot a weapon if they're with a parent or guardian. still, even some gun advocates say putting an uzi in the hands of a 9-year-old is questionable, even if it is legal. our senior legal analyst, jeffrey toobin, joins me.

>> you think? putting an uzi in the hands of a 9-year-old is a questionable decision? it's insane! this thing is totally insane. >> it is legal. >> that's the thing. again, mike kinsley, my mentor in journalism, he liked to say, the scandal is what's illegal, the scandal is what's legal. it's what society decides not to punish. in arizona, it is legal as long as there are -- there's supervision and the parents approve. the parents were present. there was a skilled supervisor there. now, i think the parents, to put it mildly, made an error in judgment in allowing this girl to do this. but, i mean, how you can have a society that allows a 9-year-old to shoot an uzi is just unbelievable. >> i mean, under federal law, no one under 18 can possess a weapon like this. but if it's -- if you're with a guardian, you can be instructed. >> correct. and this was -- and you know, the tragedy here is that a lot of people in this country hunt with their parents. i mean, that's a big bonding

experience for a lot of people. you know, that is something that people have done for generations. i don't think there's anything wrong with that. but just an element of common sense. an uzi, a semiautomatic weapon. just look at her in that photograph. >> right! >> she can't even hold it! >> it's very easy to lose control of very quickly, and you know, the finger on that trigger -- >> that's a military weapon. i mean, military people have trouble controllin inling it. >> apparently she lost control of it, the gun went up, the gun continued to fire and she shot him in the head. no one's going to be brought up on charges as far as we understand. >> as far as i'm aware, not only will there be no criminal charges, i don't think there'll be any civil liability. it's now being handled in arizona as a workers compensation matter, because he was injured on the job. >> so the family of the man who was killed can't sue -- >> no, he was injured on the job, so he will be -- i mean, i don't think he can sue his employer, because that was sort of the customary away of

instruction. i don't think he can sue the 9-year-old girl's family. i just think this is the system that's in place and it's heartbreaking. >> jeff toobin, thanks very much. just ahead, the prescription painkillers, are they a gateway to street drugs, particularly heroin. they certainly were for a grandmother in colorado, ended up a heroin addict after getting hooked on oxycontin prescribed by her doctor. her story and dr. drew weigh in, next. rrows a reality for over 19 million people. [ alex ] transamerica helped provide a lifetime of retirement income. so i can focus on what matters most. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. transamerica. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. (vo) ours is a world of the red-eyes. (daughter) i'm really tired. (vo) the transfers. well, that's kid number three. (vo) the co-pilots. all sitting... ...trusting... ...waiting... ...for a safe arrival. introducing the all-new subaru legacy.

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to move you forward to where you want to be. your point "c". capella university. start your journey at capella.edu. you probably heard a lot in the last few years about the rise of prescription drug abuse. for one mother in colorado, it didn't just kill her pain, it led her down the path to heroin addiction. she started off oxycontin and then turned to heroin. heroin was the cheaper fix. i'm going to talk to dr. drew about how common that is in a moment. first, ana cabrera has one woman's story.

>> reporter: this park is where you would pick up? >> this is it. one of them. >> reporter: how often? >> probably twice a week. >> reporter: synth was an all american mom of eight with a deep dark secret. >> i was thinking about one thing and that was heroin. >> reporter: hooked on heroin for near lay decade. >> in the beginning, it was a feel good. at the end, it was black. >> reporter: it started innocently enough. she had pain in her hip, scar tissue perhaps from multiple c-sections. a doctor prescribed oxycontin. but in just two weeks, she was addicted. >> by the time i got to my second doctor, she said you're taking enough for three adult men. >> reporter: are doctors too quick to prescribe a pain

killer? >> some of them definitely. >> reporter: what happened to her isn't uncommon. and neither is the jump from prescription meds to heroin. >> they act on the exact same parts of the brain. they cause reinforcement. they cause euphoria. >> reporter: but heroin is much cheaper. one oxycontin can cost $80 on the street. $100 worth of heroin could last scutto up to three days. scutto crisscrossed colorado to meet with drug dealers at parks, strip mall, sometimes with her grandchildren in the car. so this is a good place to pick up because we've got sides of houses here, fences. >> reporter: this mom and grandmom in her mid-40s at the time didn't shoot heroin like some addicts do, she smoked it. >> and i would drive with my knee, hold the foil in one hand, the straw in my mouth, the lighter in the other, and i would be driving down i-70 going

65 miles per hour smoking heroin. >> reporter: driven by the drugs for nine years, scutto thought she was destined to die a drug addict until a wake-up call one day when she looked in the mirror. >> i was a skeleton. i had this lovely green glow going, so i knew my liver was shutting down. the skin was hanging, literally hanging off my body. and something about that moment when i saw myself triggered something in my head, oh. home away from home. >> reporter: what is going through your mind? >> chaos. hope for the first time in a long time. >> reporter: that's what was happening when you first got here? >> yeah. i knew i couldn't do it by myself. and i didn't know how to do it. >> reporter: scutto was in rehab for 33 days.

this was her intake picture. >> hell. i threw up every 15 minutes. i would have to live in the shower with the water temperature of 120 degrees to burn the skin to not feel the pain in my back. >> reporter: the physical withdrawal was just the first hurdle. scutto has worked through a 12-step recovery. it's been over three years. no relapses, and scutto, now 55 and a grandmother of 18, has a new appreciation for life. >> the only way i'm going to stay clean and sober is to remember where i came from. >> she is lucky she made it out. ana cabrera reporting. i spoke with addiction specialist dr. drew pinsky host of "dr. drew on call." the slide from addiction to painkillers to being addicted to heroin, it seems like it's just a commonplace occurrence now. >> it is common.

and i've been chanting about it for a couple of years. and i really have seen this thing accelerate in the last six to 12 months. physicians are finally getting the message that we have been overprescribing opiates, oral pain medications. they are rapidly addictive, as you portray in the stories here, and it's a problem that we as physicians are creating. the problem is once we identify it as a problem, we have to refer it for appropriate treatment. and my deepest fear was what physicians would start doing was saying oh my god, you're a drug addict, you're a bad patient. i'm not prescribing for you anymore as opposed to referring them for treatment. and guess what? when you take a person strung out on oral opiates and tell them they're cut off, they're going somewhere. and right now they're going to the street and the cheapest, best way to get high with that compound, with that class of drug is heroin. >> the d.a. just last week announced they're going to tighten control of things like vicodin, oxycontin, making them schedule 2 drugs. >> appropriate. >> is that going to make it more difficult for doctors to prescribe them?

>> no, no. really it's only going to mean they can prescribe them for limited time periods which hopefully less people will become addicted and hopefully will raise awareness. this is not about the oral opiates. this is about how doctors are transitioning these patients who they have created addicts, brought them into addiction and referring them for treatment of what we call an disease. it's caused by the interaction with the medical system. it happens all the time. and it often gets missed. and now people are getting shut out, and they're turning to the streets. >> i think often, though, we don't think about people later in life. i mean, the woman in the piece was in her mid-40s when she got addicted. this any type of typical profile of anyone who becomes addicted or when they get addicted to opiates? >> not right now. if you you have a history of alcoholism in your family heritage, a history of drug addiction yourself, any drug addiction or a family history of drug addiction, you are at risk. but anderson, there is another sort of chapter to this story that people need to be aware of. in my world when people get

strung out on heroin, they don't typically die of heroin addiction. when they die, they die when they go badck to pills. the pills are the easiest thing to overdose in. probably the last ten years, pretty much every patient i've lost has been around pills. >> wow. >> and that's where the real -- yeah. >> is that because the body is used to heroin and they're change igit up or they're using more pills? >> they're using more pills. they're combining with benzodiazepams. heroin your putting cocaine, doing speed balls. you're not adding the valium and the klonopin and the xanax which they typically coprescribe when they can't sleep. they put them on a benzo and that's where people really get into trouble that combination is exceedingly common and quite deadly. >> wow, incredible. dr. drew, thank you very much. >> you bet. >> incredibly scary stuff that is it for this two-hour edition of "360.""

"cnn tonight" with don lemon is next. good evening. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. a confrontation with police in broad daylight. gunshots and a young african american man is dead. no, this is not ferguson. this is less than four miles away in st. louis where kajine powell was shot to death. authorities say powell was brandishing a knife. his mother is here tonight. she calls her son's death murder. also, the shocking ways isis is recruiting young people around the world, and what it will take to stop them. we're going to talk with a former jihadist who says isis uses social media to recruit kids living a gangster life. we're going to get into all of that tonight. but i want to begin with the death of kajean powell. back