they've already got what it takes. they just need to put to it work. >> rock the boat! >> and if you know someone who deserves this recognition go, to cnnheroes.com now and tell us all about them. that's it for us tonight. i'm don lemon. thank you so much for joining us. i'll see you back rosemary churl barnett live for cnn international. >> thank you, don, as always. appreciate it. well, hello and welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. i'm rosemary church. >> yes. and i'm errol barnett. lots to get to at this hour. first up, no good options. the u.s. weighs its choices in its fight against the military group isis. plus a deadly shooting accident that has a lot of people shaking their heads. why did a firing range allow a 9-year-old girl to use a submachine gun? >> a really sad story there. raising a lot of questions. all right. but we want o'begin with a mother's desperate plea to militants in syria for the

release of her son np in a video message shirley sotloff asks isis leader abu bakr al baghdadi to free her son steven who's been missing since august, last august, last year. steven sotloff is the other american journalist shown in the isis video in which james foley was beheaded, you may remember. isis said that sotloff's life depends on the u.s. halting its air strikes on isis fighters in iraq. shirley says her son was only trying to report on the suffering of muslims. >> since steven's capture i've 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 tho control over the actions of the u.s. government. he's an innocent journalist. >> incredible there. and the american journalist released by militants in syria over the weekend is now back home in boston, where he spoke

briefly to reporters. peter theo curtis was held for nearly two years, but the joy of his release on sunday was tempered by the execution just days earlier of fellow journalist james foley. curtis's mother nancy says she is overwhelmed with relief and curtis thanked all those who worked so hard to bring him home. take a listen. >> 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. 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. >> now, the u.s. says it is aware of reports that a second american jihadist was killed in syria over the weekend but cannot confirm them yet. syrian rebels battling both the

assad government and isis militants say the second man was killed in the same battle as this man, douglas mccain. they say his conversion to islam years ago didn't alarm them but his posts on facebook in support of isis certainly did. the u.s. says it became aware of mccain more than ten years ago because of his association with suspected radicals. now, meantime the u.s. military is considering its options to deal with isis both in iraq and syria. and in the meantime another humanitarian crisis is developing in northern iraq. pentagon correspondent barbara starr has the details. >> reporter: desperate iraqis again on the run from isis. this time minority turkmen in northern iraq under siege for weeks. people desperate for food, water, and above all safety. the u.s. military is prepared to potential potentially expand operations to

air drop humanitarian supplies and bomb isis positions to help break its grip here if president obama orders it. across the border in syria no decision yet by the white house on whether to begin air strikes against isis strongholds inside syria. >> i would not at this point set up a time frame for a presidential decision. >> president obama's critics, as expected, impatient. >> could i just say that when the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs talk about how this is a huge threat this is and the biggest we've ever seen, et cetera, and then -- and there's nothing to follow that up. because there's no strategy. >> for now pentagon drones continue flying inside iraq, looking into syria for possible future targets, including isis convoys, weapons, personnel, anything that could be hit to stop its momentum as a capable

military force. it's critical military intelligence needed first before the president is expected to make a decision about ordering air strikes. >> and if we could locate insurgent trucks, humvees, armored vehicles, tanks, mortars, artillery, air strikes would be most effective at eliminating those pieces of the isis arsenal. >> but the reality of air strikes also settling in. >> it's not a panacea to destroying the group because it will simply melt into the areas that it already controls, and then comes the much more difficult problem of how to root them out. >> reporter: defense department officials are making the case that air strikes alone can only do so much. generally, they can break the momentum of an enemy force, but they do not stop it. barbara starr, cnn, the pentagon. now civilians in northern

iraq are watching isis with fear of course. and a horrific attack this past weekend gives them plenty of reason to be worried. anna corinne spoke with a family victimized by that incident and filed this report. >> reporter: sitting silently in a hospital bed, 10-year-old aya gently touches her face. the horror of her injuries more than enough to bear. her brother is dead, but no one wants to tell her. this was the terror unleashed on aya, her family, and the city of kirkuk. when three car bombs and a roadside explosive went off within minutes, killing 20 people, injuring more than 100. cctv footage capturing one of the deadly blasts. isis claimed responsibility for the weekend attacks, designed to inflict as much pain and trauma as possible. "my children didn't deserve this," says aya's father, who

was driving his family when one of the bombs went off just meters from his car. "no one's children should have to suffer like this." while it struck panic and fear into the mixed community of shia, sunnis and kurds, kirkuk is yet to fall under isis control. when iraqi soldiers fled from their outposts following the sudden fall of mosul in june it was the peshmerga from kurdistan who came in to defend the city and its valuable oil fields. but despite the presence of these soldiers and the newly built defensive positions, the islamic extremists are on the doorstep. "isis is just over there in those arab villages," explains general nadi amir. "they fired on us again last night." not all isis militants are operating out in the open. intelligence officials tell us that many are infiltrating kirkuk, quietly recruiting young disaffected sunnis, including this influential emir from mosul who was recently arrested.

"they come to kirkuk because of all the minorities," says intelligence chief idris rafat. it's easy to blend in. due to kirkuk's diversity this is a city that is exposed and vulnerable to isis. according to authorities, they've arrested dozens of members in the past few months, including the emir. and they strongly believe that there are sleeper cells plarning to attack. to these bombing victims recovering from their gruesome injuries they know too well the danger the islamic extremists pose in their mission to create a caliphate. >> i ask from the god to revenge from this terrorist. please, god, help us. help the iraqi people. >> reporter: a desperate plea from a young engineering student who just wants to live in his country without fear. anna corinne, cnn, kirkuk, iraq. on to another part of the

middle east. islamist militants fighting the syrian government have captured the key crossing point of the israeli-occupied golan heights. that brings the al qaeda-linked fighters within a few hundred meters of israeli troops. the crossing is in a u.n. demarcation zone. so u.n. peacekeepers are separating the two sides. a syrian opposition group says 20 government soldiers and four rebels were killed in the fighting. israel says stray fire wounded a military officer in israeli-controlled territory. and now to still more news out of the middle east. the israeli-palestinian cease-fire appears to be holding now into its second full day. this is an open-ended cease-fire with no expiration date. several thousand people rallied in gaza city wednesday from both hamas and islamic jihad. others who fled the fighting took advantage of the truce to return to their homes. many found any rubble. hamas leaders say israel's easing of the blockade and other

concessions essentially amount to a victory for palestinians. >> translator: during the battle, 51 days, al qassam and the resistance had the final word. they began the war by striking haifa and ended it by striking haifa. >> the cease-fire is not helping israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu's popularity. a local news survey shows his approval rating down 14 points to 55% since the beginning of the month. but mr. netanyahu is still talking tough. >> translator: we wanted to bring some quiet for all the citizens of israel. and i can say that hamas was hit very hard. hamas has been badly damaged. the most badly damaged it's been since it was founded. and also politically. >> gaza officials say more than

2,100 palestinians were killed in the past two months of fighting, while israel says 67 people, most of them soldiers, were killed on their side. all right. let's take a very short break right now. but next on cnn new hot spots emerge in eastern ukraine, and accusations from kiev of another russian incursion. and has libya now become a battleground for that nation's neighbors? we'll have a report with the latest after this.

a day after the russian and ukrainian presidents met in belarus, ukraine is accusing russia of a new military incursion in eastern ukraine. >> yeah. a ukrainian military spokesman says russian soldiers and armored vehicles crossed the border not far from where ten soldiers were detained on monday. diana magnay has details of that and new fighting from slovyansk. >> reporter: we're hearing disturbing reports of very heavy fighting in two areas to the south of the main conflict zone in eastern ukraine. one area just between the rebel stronghold of donetsk and the russian border there seems to be very heavy fighting there. reports that local separatists are being backed by fighters who have crossed the border from russia and are lending their

support with heavy weaponry and artillery. now, we're also hearing according to ukraine's national security council that dozens of civilians have been killed when the terrorists, as ukraine calls them, opened fire in various villages close to donetsk. now, it is very difficult for us to verify this information. first and foremost, russia denies that it is sending any kind of fighters or weaponry across the border from russia, and it has denied that ever since this conflict began. and secondly, we are not in those reengz and we cannot tell exactly what's going on. but further south very close to the szov sea near to mariupol there seems to be another oichbs going on where according to a local commander russian tanks are pushed in from across the border there and engaged ukrainian forces in very heavy fighting. so there is a sense that there seems to be a new counteroffensive by the rebels

backed by russian support of some kind that is putting very, very heavy pressure on ukrainian forces as they attempt to win back control of the rebel-held parts of eastern ukraine. diana magnay, cnn, slovyansk, ukraine. now we want to turn to the worsening crisis in libya. the u.n. security council is calling for an immediate cease-fire there as well as sanctions against those involved in fighting between rival militias. but the measure makes no mention of outside nations believed to be involved in the conflict in libya. with more on that here's becky anderson. >> reporter: black plumes ever smoke line the horizon. gunfire rings through the streets. it's the worst fighting libya has seen since rebel groups overthrew the dictator moammar gadhafi in 2011. once united behind a common goal, the zintan mezrata

brigades have now turned their gonzalez on each other, fighting over political and economic power and libya's vast oil reserves. and now reports that libya has become the latest arena that i regional battle for influence, between egypt, saudi arabia, and the united arab emirates on the one hand and turkey and qatar on the other. >> we do believe there were strikes undertaken in recent days by the uae and egypt inside libya, and i would refer you to those governments for any further details. >> the u.s.'s comment tuesday backs claims by libyan militants that egypt and the uae secretly launched air strikes against the islamist-allied mezrata brigade twice in the past week, effectively coming out in support of the anti-islamist zintan fighters. mezrata fighters he's the the main airport in tripoli just hours after the suspected air strikes rocked the capital.

but so far the egyptians and emiratis have denied taking part in military action in libya. egypt's foreign ministry spokesman told cnn suggestions it was involved in recent air strikes are nonsense. and the uae's minister of state for foreign affairs anwar gargash tweeted this reaction. "the attempt to drag the uae into the libyan issue is an escape from facing the results of the elections and the illegitimacy it brought about in the majority in libya for stability and security." he's referring to the elections in june that brought to power a new anti-islamist government. but the opposition has proved ill equipped to quell the violence. >> we are suffering from terrorism, extremism and ideologies that do not belong to the libyan peoples. >> reporter: and to add to the already volatile situation the outgrowing group reconvened on monday to re-elect a new islamist-backed government, essentially leaving libya with

rival governments backed by armed militia and their foreign backers. becky anderson, cnn, abu dhabi. well, still to come here on "cnn newsroom," a child kills a weapons instructor in a tragic accident. now everyone's asking how does a 9-year-old get a machine gun? her hands? groundbreaking advances in safety by taking our eyes off the road... and focusing on drivers. real people. real distractions. without real consequences. the result: our gold standard of safety. and the only place you'll find it is at the lexus golden opportunity sales event. now through september 2nd. this is the pursuit of perfection. your studied day and night for her driver's test. secretly inside, you hoped she wouldn't pass. the thought of your baby girl

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if you're a gun lover, certainly listen up because

there are serious questions being raised now after a young girl just 9 years old accidentally shot and killed her instructor at a gun range. >> yeah. i want to bring up these images. the images are just -- they're just before the tragedy in the actual fact in the u.s. state of arizona. the weapon you see the girl handling is actually an uzi submachine gun. now, here's david mattingly with a look at a growing american industry that brings tourism and heavy firepower together. >> reporter: bullets and burgers. the gun range where a young girl firing a machine gun accidentally killed her instructor. is part of a las vegas area tourism niche that's growing almost as fast as the bullets are flying. and critics say there are no laws keeping children from firing away. >> this tragedy just illustrates how you never know what could happen. and we really do need to use common sense when thinking about when a child can have access to

a weapon like that. >> reporter: authorities say the girl seen in this video is just 9 years old. firing a mini uzi submachine gun. the only restrictions at the range, you have to be at least 8 years old and accompanied by an adult if you're under 18. >> how does a 9-year-old get an uzi in her hands? >> well, a 9-year-old gets an uzi in her hand when -- the criteria is 8 years old to shoot firearms. we instruct kids as young as 5 in .22 rivals and they don't get to handle hot firearms but they're under the supervision of their parents and of our professional range masters. >> reporter: the bullets and burgers website lists tour packages costing up to $1,000 to shoot different weapons. they offer bachelorette parties, birthdays and weddings. bullets and burgers is one of about a dozen gun ranges around las vegas catering to from around the world. >> we have to keep that held in. >> reporter: authorities say the young girl was with her parents visiting from new jersey.

>> this is an aberration. i have never seen anything like this in all my years. >> reporter: bob irwin of the gun store takes credit for getting gun tourism started in vegas in the '80s. in this promotional video you see how irwin's customers pay to fire off heavy-duty automatic weapons. but he says that's only if they're physically able to handle them. >> it appears that the girl just had too much gun for her. the gun was too small and too fast. >> reporter: irwin says the uzi she was using is capable of firing off five rounds in a third of a second. she was gripping it with both hands when she pulled the trigger and lost control. dafrd m david mattingly, cnn, atlanta. >> yeah. i mean, this is an example that an uzi is too much for a child of that age. >> yeah. >> it's a hot issue here in the united states. saying anything about guns. >> a lot of gun lovers in the u.s. you know, i've lived in arizona. i've gone hunting. it's very popular there.

and there are many, many responsible gun owners. but i think what this proves and shocks everyone is you can have -- that 9-year-old, her parents was there. this was an accredited gun range. you can have your parents there. you can have a trainer with you. and yet things can still go wrong. i think it's a real wake-up call for a lot of people. >> it is. it will be interesting to see if there will be any changes in the aftermath of that. but i think we've said that before. >> yeah. but poor girl, 9 years old and having to deal with that. >> she'll carry that right through her life. indeed. several beaches across southern california have been closed adds destructive swells continue to pound the shoreline. our meteorologist pedram javaheri has been following this very closely. he joins us now. pedro. >> guys, this is some of the largest waves we've seen really going back to the late 1990s in parts of southern california at least. there was hurricane linda back in 1997 that brought some 30-foot swells across portions of southern california, very slirnlt track to hurricane maria about 24 hours ago. look at the scenes coming off california's coast and beaches there.

pretty impressive sight on wednesday afternoon. 10 feet, 15 feet in a few spots. we're talking in excess of four meters for the international audience here. but take a look. the perspective here looks fine and dandy if you know what you're doing. but we know some 100 water rescues conducted by the los angeles county police just on tuesday afternoon. we know 25 rescues conducted in a 2 1/2-hour period in that surfing hot spot known as the wedge which is in newport beach if you're familiar with this perspective. we know all of it on the waters and maybe for the experts out there. but look at the damage it's done on some property. some of the images we've had, sand bermz berms being set aside in smof these coastal communities. seal beach, spectators crowding the pier and looking down. malibu pier shut down because of damage taking place there. the view from some of those very expensive coastal properties looking smk like that right now ahead of this storm system that is about 900 miles offshore. and here's what's left of it. just downgraded to a tropical storm. marie's the name.

95-kilometer per-hour winds. roughly 60 miles per hour. parallel to the california coast and then moving away from it. but look at this. courtesy of astronomer reed wiseman on board the iss just a couple of days ago snapping a photograph looking down onto the opening pacific waters when this was a menacing category 5 storm system. again, it is going to be moving away from the coastline in the next couple of days. so we expect the conditions to improve come thursday afternoon, especially come friday afternoon. but if you're heading out to the beaches or across this region some of those south-facing peninsula cities from sanita barbara toward ventura to malibu and long beach could see wave heights at least 10 feet in a few spots and upwards of about 15 feet or about 3 1/2 again to 4 1/2 meters. there's a dangerous situation along the coast of southern california at least in the next day or so. >> and they will usually put up red flags along the beach to let surfers know don't go np because surfers hear that kind of thing and think fantastic.

>> reports of 2 1/2 hours of traffic going down to newport beach because of people trying to flock to the beaches. >> that's the issue. all right. thanks, pedram. >> thank you. let's take another short break. but still to come here on cnn, hostages, terrorists, and huge ransom demands. an expert in hostage negotiations tells us the best ways to get these capitalivtive freed. also ahead -- >> hey. back up. back up. back up. put your hands up. put your hands up. drop the knife right now. drop it. >> we're going to take you inside this unique lab aiming to help police better handle life or death decisions. stay with us.

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welcome back. you are watching cnn's special coverage. i'm rosemary church. >> and i'm errol barnett. here are the biggest stories we're following for you right now. the u.s. is considering expanded air strikes and humanitarian aid drops in iraq in an yark noerth of baquba. many have fled the town of emerli which has been under siege for weeks by sunni isis fighters. the united nations fears a possible massacre of the thousands of shia turkmen still trapped there. syrian rebels have captured the only crossing to the israeli occupied golan heights. they say 20 government soldiers and four rebels were killed in the fighting. israel says stray fire murdered a military officer in israeli controlled territory. the israeli state department says it's likely more russian incursions are under way right now in eastern ukraine around donetsk and luhansk. a ukrainian military spokesman reports heavy fighting in the

area and says another russian soldier was detained after ten were captured on monday. the gruesome execution of journalist james foley was carried out by a man with a british accent. there are reports british intelligence is close to identifying the terrorists but he's far from the only british national fighting for isis or other militant groups in the middle east. i talked about the reasons why with nile gardner. he is director at the margaret thatcher center for freedom at the heritage foundation. >> now, you have said that you weren't surprised when you heard that the isis militant who beheaded james foley was british. why do you say that? >> yeah, i wasn't surprised at all. for many years british jihadists have been traveling to all sorts of war zones and hot spots

across the world. and the fact that there are already 500 jihadists on the ground inside iraq and syria, many in quite senior positions in isis, meant that it was no real surprise that the killer of james foley happens to be british. and many of those associated as well i think with the murder were also british. so this should come as no surprise to anyone who is familiar with the british terror networks that are emanating from london alone. >> so why is islamic extremism such a problem in the uk? what is it about life in britain that is pushing these young men to choose to go and fight with these extremists, these terror groups overseas? >> well, it's a very good question. and british intelligence authorities estimate there are around 2,000 islamist radicals operating in the uk with ties to al qaeda. that's a huge number. i think that islamists are taking advantage of britain's tradition of tolerance and

freedom of speech. you've had many mosques in great britain effectively infiltrated, taken over by islamist militants. these militants have indoctrinated young british muslims. many of these muslims have then gone on to afghanistan, iraq, and syria. at the same time also there's been significant islamist infiltration of british schools including many government-funded schools as well. and so you have i think a culture in which many extremist islamist groups have thrived. some have even received government funding. and so britain as a safe haven for people all over the world escaping war, escaping persecution, has ended up ironically as an incubator for terrorism now. and this of course is a massive problem for the british government to address. it's also a problem for the

united states. after all, these jihadists can travel to america freely under visa waivers. it's a significant security threat to america as well. >> i think a lot of our viewers listening to what you're saying right now would be alarmed. i mean, this is an incredible problem. how is the british government going to approach this? what is it doing? has it got anything, any plans at this point to do something about the extremism spreading throughout the community there? >> i think people should be alarmed, not only in britain but also across europe as well where many governments are facing similar problems. within the united kingdom it simply cannot be business as usual and there has been a very vigorous debate in recent weeks with regard to what measures should be in place to deal with the mounting isis threat. there have been of course growing calls for jihadists to be stripped of their british citizenship. there have been calls for harsh detention laws to be introduces.

there have been calls for islamist preachers of hate to be deported. and the question is whether or not the british government has the willpower to introduce new legislation that is going to address a problem that has fastered now for a couple of decades in britain as successive british governments have really failed to deal with this threat. we also of course need to see islamic leaders inside britain speaking out against isis, speaking out against extremism within muslim communities. we need to see muslim leaders in britain addressing the jihadist threat coming from inside muslim communities in the uk. so on multiple fronts i think this is a problem that has to be addressed, but britain has to take a far tougher line toward the islamist militants within its midst and you simply cannot see a continuation of the kinds of policies that have allowed

the jihadists to thrive and prosper. >> nile gardiner talking to me there a little earlier. he even went further and he was talking about great britain should be a part of these air strikes that the united states is taking part in there in northern iraq. he says great britain has a part to play there. and he also believes that special forces from britain should be going on the ground there to hunt for the killers of james foley. >> we certainly haven't heard that publicly. who knows? perhaps it's happening covertly. but he made the point it should be more than just the u.s. and anyone who's willing and able to roll isis back. >> much broader force. well, all right. the execution of james foley and threatened execution of another american journalist are raising new questions about ransoms. >> some countries say they do not pay ransoms like the u.s. others say hey, they secure the release of hostileages, sometimes these demands, these ransom demands are outrageous, though. but they can set the stage for negotiations. karl penhaul talked to one man

well versed in the very tricky business of setting hostages free. >> the life of this american citizen, obama, depends on your next decision. >> it's a brutal threat to kill journalist steven sotloff. a moment of terror. >> operationally we've got a big footprint. >> reporter: but the kidnap and ransom specialist duncan boulivant, it's also a moment of hope. what he views as an opening bid in a position negotiation. over more than a decade he says he's helped cut hostage deals with rebels and drug gangs in latin america as well as islamist radicals in iraq and africa. zplu may find you're dealing with a group who are completely around i twist and actually very difficult to negotiate with. you may find you're dealing with a group who are totally inexperience, out of their depth and are playing a game which they think they are meant to be playing. and then you get the hard professionals. >> reporter: isis say they killed another american reporter, james foley, in

retaliation for u.s. bombing raids. but a month after foley was snatched in syria in 2012 his boss at the global post says isis demanded a ransom for more than $130 million. a startling number to foley's employer. >> we thought that something in the range of $5 million was probably the right amount to pay for the ransom. >> reporter: while officially denied by the french and spanish governments, it is widely reported that both kourpts have paid ransoms in exchange to free their citizens. but in the case of foley negotiations quickly collapsed. and balboni doubted whether the isis negotiation was serious. tough as it sounds, bullivent says kidnapping for ransom has become a global business. >> i don't want to diminish the shocking impact this has on -- devastating impact this has on families, but it's a bit like buying a house. if somebody wants to sell a

house and you're interested in buying it, they're asking for ten times the going rate in that particular street, you're not going to enter into a negotiation. >> reporter: on wednesday sotloff's mother made a televised appeal, addressing isis's commander abu bakra al baghdadi by name. >> as a mother i ask your justice to be mers'ciful and no punish my son for matters he has no control over. >> reporter: such an appeal, says bullivant, is an excellent strategy. >> it's about talking. it's about keeping those lines of communication open at all costs. it's about being calm. it's about really time and time again reminding people that we're dealing with humans. >> a reminder that not only a ransom but also human lives are at stake. karl penhaul, cnn, london. defiance never grows old. citracal maximum. easily absorbed calcium plus d.

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it's been a while since we've given you an update on the search for mh370, but here it is. an analysis of an unsuccessful phone call from ground crews to the missing malaysian airliner suggests flight 370 may have turned south earlier than previously thought. but australia's deputy prime minister says that won't change the priority search area in the southern indian ocean. he says the search for the missing jetliner will resume next month and include australian, chinese, and malaysian vessels. sure seeing a map of the search area there. authorities have been mapping the ocean floor here and they've discovered a number of trenches and volcanoes in the area. >> in some places, one place in particular near the broken ridge, the sea level rises to as little as -- the sea depth is as little as 600 meters, and then falls away in just a very short

distance to 6,600 meters. so there's very, very deep water in the area. >> searchers have been looking for any sign of malaysian airlines flight 370 since it disappeared from radar march 8th with 239 people on board. well, fewer police are patrolling the streets of ferguson, missouri. it has been nearly three weeks since michael brown, an unarmed african-american teenager, was fatally shot by a white police officer. while protests continue, the sometimes violent confrontations with police have stopped. so st. louis county police officers and some state troopers are returning to their normal duties. and the xlees command center that was an early target of some protesters, is closing. well, police in washington

state are using a special laboratory to learn how to better handle potentially dangerous encounters involving their officers and the public. gary tuchman paid a visit. >> reporter: this spokane, washington police officer is getting wired. so his brain and body functions can be monitored. as he gets ready to make life-or-death decisions. >> spokane police. police department. hey. hey! talk to me. >> reporter: decisions in a most unique laboratory. >> what are you doing? [ bleep ] hey. >> 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. zlu 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. >> aaah! >> reporter: while the volunteers make split-second decisions, brain waves and heart waves are checked. it's all part of an am birks research project at wash state university, partly funded by the defense department, with the goal of improving justice in america. professor brian vila is the man in charge. >> we don't know yet. still, 100 and some years before 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 teddy preninger is told he has pulled over a stolen car. >> can i see your driver's license, proof of registration and -- zp >> you want my driver's license? >> yes, i do. >> hey, you guys. [ gunshots ] >> oh, my god! >> the researchers say these

volunteers' hearts are generally racing because it's also realistic. >> drop the gun. >> many findings by the study will be released by the end of the year, but some have already been published. the research is declaring that volunteers of all races often view african-american suspects as more threatening than white suspects but that they may have subconsciously overcompensated because of that bias. >> the surprise was that they were more restrained in shooting african-americans than whites. >> police officer. let me see your hands. don't move. stop. stop! >> reporter: 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: novices are also used as volunteers. so with the cops guiding me i pull over a suspicious car with a broken taillight. >> hello there, sir. your taillight's broken. do you know that? sir, take your hands out of your pockets. sir. take your hands out of your

pockets. sir. sir! put your hands on the steering wheel. sir. sir, you've got to listen. thank you. that guy looked like he was getting a gun out. i took the gun out, pointed it at him. >> proper way to deal with it. >> 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. >> gary doing a pretty good job there without any training, but it goes to show these are split-second decisions. >> it's a good test. to get an idea of how you would respond. coming up next for you here on cnn, he's a notorious assassin responsible for thousands of murders. after the break find out why this hit man has been set free. at the lexus golden opportunity sales event, you'll discover what happens when we cut corners. the corners of test tracks.

where we engineered our most track-tested line of performance vehicles ever. the result: our gold standard of performance. and the only place you'll find it is at the lexus golden opportunity sales event. now through september 2nd. this is the pursuit of perfection.

>> reporter: 22 years. known simply as popeye, velasquez was released tuesday night from a prison northeast of bogota, colombia. he was the top hitman for drug lord pablo escobar during the '80s, the period known in colombia as the narco-terrorism era. he surrendered to authorities in 1992. >> translator: i don't owe anything to anybody, he said then. "i haven't done anything wrong."

but in jailhouse interviews he admitted several times to killing about 300 people. he also confessed to masterminding the killings of more than 3,000 other people, most of them civilians. he was also vonl for a number of high-profile kidnappings, among them that of former colombian president andres pastrana. he personally apologized to pastrana two years ago in prison. "i ask you for forgiveness from the bottom of my heart," he told pastrana, for what the medellin cartel did for risking your very important life. he also told pastrana he dismembered some of his victims, something he says he deeply regrets as a man who's turned his life to god. velasquez spent 22 years in prison, or 3/4 of a sentence for the murder of former presidential candidate luis carlos galan. the victim's son says he has already forgiven him. "he was sentenced for my father's murder," his son said.

"he gave us the truth and asked for forgiveness. in my case i forgive him." velasquez told local media that he fears for his life as a free man and there's an 80% chance that his many enemies will kill him, especially those members of the medellin cartel whose names and committed crimes he voluntarily disclosed to authorities. rafael romo, cnn. >> all right. we've already shown you a storm in the pacific ocean. now a tropical storm is developing near the coast of southern china. meteorologist pedram javaheri is tracking it. joins us now with more. pedram? >> reporter: this is one of the most densely populated portions of our planet when you talk about this region, stretching out of hong kong all the way into portions of northern veet navm. we know this storm system at this point, there has been about a 50% chance of forming right near the gulf of tonkin, the capital of hainan, of course hanoi. tremendous rainfall we expect. i don't think it will become much of a wind maker but the

rainfall could easily exceed 11, 12 centimeters over the coming days as it moves over this region. but it's been rather quiet for the month of august when it comes to tropical activity after a blazing start over the past month and a half or so. we're now below average in the named storms department in the west pacific. 13, 14 at 14. typhoons below average. super typhoons, remember july we had back-to-back super typhoons. four in the western pacific and this is the busiest time of the year and busiest basin when it comes to tropical activity. you take a look. with just one named storm which impacted south korea in august, we are now way below the average for the month of august. this is going to be the first time since 199 -- make it '77 i should say that we had only one named storm in the month of august but zero super typhoons to speak of. so at least good news in that department. but i want to lav with some video coming out of uruguay in south america. take a look at the perspective. some pretty impressive scenes out there. it almost looks like snow. it is sea foam coming onto the shore right there.

when you have the right conditions the sea water, especially when it contains large quantities of dissolved organic matter it begins to trap air beneath the surface and you have this foam develop and quite an interesting scene out there for folks driving past the coastal reaches of uruguay the last couple days, guys. >> some phenomenony shores there. >> absolutely. >> good video. thanks. now, it is a hot car. once owned by the actor known as the king of cool. the ferrari just fetched a cool sum at auction partly because of who sat behind the wheel. >> sports car is one example of hollywood's love affair with high performance vehicles. peter valdez depena reports. >> reporter: this beautiful 1967 ferrari is worth a lot of money.

this one is worth triple because of steve mcqueen. mcqueen is one of the only celebrities who can multiply the value of a collectible car just because he owned it. in case he didn't know, steve mcqueen loved automobiles and he was exceptionally good at driving. you remember that famous chase scene in the movie "bullitt." mcqueen pulled off a lot of those moves himself. he also loved racing, passion that showed in the movie "le mans." >> it's life. anything that happens before or after is just waiting. >> reporter: as films go, kind of boring. but the cars looked fantastic. but he was hardly the only movie star to have a thing for speed. there was paul newman, for instance, who raced too and he even played a car. then there was clark gable.

he also owned some nice automobiles. james dean was for fast driving. elvis is the only star who comes close to mcqueen. now, there was more to this particular car than just that mcqueen's butt was in the seat. steve mccareen's personal taste is all over this car. that's a custom paint color, put on right after he bought it. the wheels and that side mirror are also mcqueen's own selections. so whoever bought this car bought something with a little of the man himself in it. and i'll admit, i like steve mcqueen, but i'm not sure i'd pay triple the regular value for a car just because he owned it. but hey, man, it's your $10 million. you want steve mcqueen's car that bad, i'm cool with it. >> okay. and if you think $10.2 million is the most ever paid for a car, well, think again. >> that's right. this is the current record holder. take a look.

beautiful there. a gto berlaneta that went for, get this, $38 million at auction. that was earlier this month. and the price was actually a disappointment for some experts who thought it could have sold for $50 million. talking about funny money at this point. spending that amount of money for a car. what if you get a dent or god forbid an accident? >> but how much money would you have if you can spend that much on a car? >> rosie and i will sit here and dream and wonder. you've been watching cnn's special coverage. i'm errol barnett. >> and i'm rosemary church. coming up in our next hour, islamic militants like isis are increasingly using social media as a recruitment tool. so why aren't interest companies doing more to block their extremist messages? we'll take a look. stay with us. ups is a global company, but most of our employees

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