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. Scroll down for video . The third day of the trial against suspected Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooter James Holmes continued on Wednesday. If convicted, Holmes could be sentenced to death. Pictured above in court on Monday, far left . Twelve people were killed and 70 hurt when Holmes allegedly opened fire on a packed theater in Aurora, Colorado for a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises in July 2012. Above, the scene of the theater after the shooting . Twelve people died and 70 were wounded. 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. His lawyers 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. Holmes' defense attorneys want the jury to find him not guilty by reason of insanity. Prosecutors say Holmes knew what he was doing, however. On the left, a sketch of Holmes in court on Monday and and 2012 mugshot on the right . 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. One of those victims was Joshua Nowlan, a former member of the military who worked on aircraft carriers. He went to the movie, 'The Dark Knight Rises,' at the Century 16 multiplex in the Denver suburb of Aurora with friends who had just returned from their honeymoon in Florida. About 15 or 20 minutes into the film, a tear gas canister was thrown into the theater, and then the shooting started. Nowlan, who shielded his friends from the bullets, was shot twice and has undergone multiple surgeries. He used the cane he now needs to walk to show jurors what he saw next. 'I assumed it had to be the shooter, from his stance ... He was walking around, and I can see him pointing the gun in a circular motion that looked like he was searching for more people ... I was terribly scared,' Nowlan told the court. 'My thought process was that he was searching for other people and that he was going to start going row by row, and that anybody he would see in that row who was still moving, he would shoot.' He described the shooter firing three-round bursts. Asked if the gunman moved fast or methodically, Nowlan said: 'He was definitely moving slowly.' None of the victims 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.
Victims of the 2012 Colorado movie theater shooting testified in court on Wednesday as the trial of suspect James Holmes continued.
Police officers who responded to the scene also spoke in court about the incident which resulted in the deaths of 12 moviegoers.
If convicted, Holmes could face the death penalty.
His defense attorneys argue that he was insane.