Image copyright AP Image caption Mr Holmes said that after the crisis hotline call was disconnected he was on "autopilot"

James Holmes had called a crisis hotline for help before he killed 12 people and wounded 70 others at a Colorado cinema, according to a video interview.

Mr Holmes said he lingered outside the cinema for a "moment or two" and called a mental health hotline. He also thought the FBI could have stopped him.

His phone call to the crisis line was disconnected, and the FBI did not come.

Mr Holmes is on trial for carrying out the deadly shooting in June 2012.

He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Prosecutors say Holmes was sane at the time of the shooting and are seeking the death penalty.

Defence attorneys claim schizophrenia distorted his ability to tell right from wrong and he should be sent to the state mental hospital.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The trial continues in Colorado over the 2012 shooting that killed 12 people

Two state-appointed psychiatrists deemed Holmes legally sane but mentally ill at the time of the shooting at the suburban movie theatre.

"At that point, I'm on autopilot," Holmes said in the video, in which he was being interviewed by state psychiatrist Dr William Reid.

He "doubted he could be talked out of it" but called the hotline as "one last chance to see if I should turn back".

When the phone call was disconnected, he knew "it was really going to happen".

Mr Holmes told Dr Reid he would be remembered as a "bad guy" and that he "accomplished what he set out to do".

In the video, Mr Holmes showed a lot of rational thinking, Dr Reid said.

Mr Holmes also told him he was not using drugs in the weeks before the attack.