Updates from the third day of the Aurora theater shooting trial.
2 p.m.
Once emergency crews pulled all the wounded from the chaotic auditorium No. 9, Aurora police Officer Tomas Campagna and another officer were tasked with securing the scene.
That meant only police officers were allowed in the blood soaked theater where ten of the 12 killed that night lay dead.
A short time after he saw news reports of the shooting on his smart phone, Campagna said he started hearing cell phones ringing.
For the next several hours, the phones rang nonstop as loved ones tried to reach the dead or survivors who left heir phones behind in the rush to flee.
Another two victims were rushed to area hospitals where they were pronounced dead.
When he left at 4 a.m., Campagna said the phones were still ringing.
Campagna, who received the department’s life saving award and other commendations for his work that night, said the smell of blood and sweat and tear gas was overwhelming when he rushed into the theater.
The sidewalk just outside the door to theater No. 9 was slick with blood, he said.
“It looked like the sidewalk was painted red,” he said.
Campagna was the fourth Aurora police officer to testify against in the Aurora theater shooting trial. In all, over a day and a half, the 24-person jury has heard from 15 witnesses, 11 of whom were in the theater when the shooting started.
Jurors also hard from Christina Blache who was wounded in both legs and later underwent five surgeries and hours of physicial therapy.
Blache was part of a large group from a local red Robin restaurant that went to the movie that night to celebrate the 27th burthday of a coworker, Alex Sullivan. Sullivan, “sully” to his close friends, was one of 12 killed that night.
Blache said she didn’t plan on going to the movie that night but when she saw how excited Sullivan was for the show, she opted to join.
The group got to the theater that night around 5:30 p.m., more than six hours before showtime.
While much of Blache’s testimony had her friends and family in the gallery weeping, her talk about how excited they all were — and their willingness to get there that early — had many laughing between the tears.
Blache said the group had tickets in two separate auditoriums, but Sullivan and a few others switched to No. 9 so the group could be together.
When the trailer for “Superman” played, Sullivan pumped his fists and cheered. Blache said he was already making plans to see the midnight premier of that superhero film, too.
Shrotly after the shooting started, Blache was hit in the leg and fell to the ground. She said she looked over and saw Sullivan on the ground next to her with a red spot on his head. She never saw him alive after the start of the movie.
Testimony is set to resume around 2 p.m.
11 a.m.: From Reporter Brandon Johansson in court
Next witness could be Aurora police officer Tomas Campagna, who received the department’s life saving and other awards for his actions
Jurors again paying close attention and craning their necks to see the diagram of the theater.
After an hour on the stand, Joshua Nowlan returned to his seat and got a pat on the back from other victims.
10:30 a.m:
Prosecution asks shooting victim Josh Nowlan to hold his cane like Holmes held his gun that night.
Josh Nowlan describes fright of hearing shooter walking. Thinks shooter is going row by row through theater to shoot people.
Josh Nowlan describing wounds in calf that felt like “rusty nail” jabbed into his leg. Friend was pushing tissue back into leg.
Josh Nowlan: “I knew it was going to be a turkey shoot.” Figured that hiding behind the seat was the safest place to be.
So far in court on Wednesday:
CENTENNIAL | Officers who rushed to the scene of the Colorado theater shooting entered a hellish world of bloody victims, noxious smells and blaring sounds — a gloomy darkness pierced by bright flashes from a fire alarm, police testified Wednesday.
“It was dim, the movie was still playing, the alarm was going off,” Aurora police officer Annette Brook told jurors in the trial of gunman James Holmes. “I began to notice the bodies, the live victims, the blood.”
Prosecutors called Brook and two other officers as witnesses on Wednesday, and their descriptions of the chaos of inside the suburban Denver theater intensified the already disturbing scene described a day earlier by moviegoers who were badly wounded or saw loved ones gunned down in the July 20, 2012, attack.
Twelve people died and 70 were hurt. Holmes is charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder.
He admits he was the shooter, his defense attorneys say, but schizophrenia had taken control of his mind and compelled him to kill. They are asking the jury to find him not guilty by reason of insanity, which would send him to the state mental hospital indefinitely.
Prosecutors argue Holmes was sane and fully aware that what he was doing was wrong. They want the jury to convict him and sentence him to die.
In the opening days of the trial, prosecutors have appeared intent on planting a deeply upsetting image in the jurors’ minds.
“It smelled very, very bad,” officer Tomas Campagna testified Wednesday, describing the mixed odors of blood, sweat, urine and feces. “It’s hard to imagine unless you’ve been there.”
Spent cartridges and casings from a shotgun, a rifle and a handgun littered the ground, so thick that officers couldn’t avoid stepping on them, Campagna said. In places, the floor looked like it had been painted in blood, he said.
Cellphones left behind by the victims rang far into the night.
More victims testified Wednesday, describing the booms and the brilliant flashes of light that burst from the muzzles of the weapons aimed at them and the hot pain of being shot. None said they saw Holmes’ face, but one of the police officers did.
Sgt. Spc. Gerald Jonsgaard testified he saw Holmes lying on the ground in the parking lot outside the theater as two officers arrested him.
Jonsgaard didn’t identify Holmes by name Wednesday but said he was sitting at the defense table.
Holmes’ lawyers have not cross-examined any prosecution witnesses. They will call their own witnesses after the prosecution rests.