pistol. you can see it has the antique look to it. or the most current popular model on the streets. it is a high point .9 millimeter that is commonly seen. this one. i couldn t say. each goes through a multistep process. they walked us through from the basic examination to the tank room. a large tank is filled with water. that is so we can discharge a weapon and acquire the bullet. where does the bullet end up. it will travel a certain distance and then drop in the tank. they are firing into the bullet recovery. it is tested for fingerprints.
examination to the tank room. why do we call it the tank room? because there s a large tank that s filled with water. and the purpose of this tank is so that we can discharge a weapon and acquire the bullet. the bullet will travel the water a certain distance and then drop to the bottom of the tank. reporter: once a bullet is recovered, it goes under the microscope then tested for fingerprints. if there were any fingerprintsflouresce under thi uv light. it s a narrow dichotomy. we want to go out there and do a good job and make gun arrests, but we also want to go home safe and in one piece. it s not easy to balance those two things. jason carroll, cnn, new york.
gun s basic examination to the tank room. why do we call it a tank room? because there is a large tank filled with water. reporter: i see that here. the purpose of this tank is to that we can discharge a weapon and acquire the bullet. reporter: where does the bullet end up? the bullet will travel through the watt aerocertain distance and drop through the bottom of the tank. reporter: the detective is firing into the bullet recovery tank. reporter: once a bullet is recovered, it goes under the microscope then tested for fingerprints. if there was any fingerprints that were found, they would light up under the light. reporter: a lengthy process but one that starts here on the streets every night with a special team tasked with getting guns off the streets. we want to go out there, we want to do a good job and make gun arrests. we also want to go home safe and in one piece. it s not easy to balance those two things.
cnn talks to a man held by pirates. he was freed in exchange for ran sh cash. but did that cash end up going to fund terrorists? kyung lah is out front. my chief officer was screaming we have to get to the engine room. they re on board. reporter: nigerian pirates armed and gunning for him. how many pirates? six. reporter: were they all armed? yes. reporter: what were they armed with? ak-47s. reporter: aboard his boat the sea retriever ferrying supplies to local oil operations. it was october 3rd of last year. thomas was running for his life. it was my chief officer. and he was pulling on me, screaming at me that the pirates were on board, that we needed to get down to the safe room. reporter: the safe room, a tank room behind the engine room with the watertight door. thomas, one other american crew member and nearly all their
nigerian crew made it inside. the pirates had pulled up in a small power boat next to thomas ship and simply climbed aboard. with no armed guards to stop them, the pirates fanned out through the ship finally cornering thomas and his crew inside the hot tank room for six excruciating hours. they kept the hole big enough that they stuck a barrel of one of their guns in there and started shooting. reporter: they started firing. they started firing rounds in there. reporter: a life or death moment thomas had predicted. thomas worked for edison shwest off shore, a contractor that supports a chevron operation off the coast of nigeria. months before he had e-mailed the coordinator writing that he was feeling threatened by his own crew. he added, i am also asking to not return to nigerinigeria. they knew there were security issues. they knew about all the threats. reporter: they told you that things would improve. yes. reporter: but the problems