DENVER -- The Arapahoe County sheriff's office fired Lt. Jim Taylor on Wednesday after he gave conflicting statements of what he saw during the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

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Are You Interested In Columbine Stories?Hear The Tape That Points To Alleged Columbine Cover-Up

Taylor told the parents of slain student Danny Rohrbough at least four times that he saw a boy fall to the ground after apparently being shot. Taylor said he realized it was Rohrbough after seeing newspaper photos of him.

Taylor and the Rohrboughs are longtime family friends.

"He had absolutely no reason to lie to me or to Brian," said Sue Petrone, Rohrbough's mother. "He was telling me the truth. I saw his face."

She said Taylor's wife, Pam, also told her that Taylor had returned home the night of the tragedy and said he had seen a boy killed.

In March 2000, Petrone secretly recorded Taylor as he told her again during a dinner party that he saw a boy fall to the ground after apparently being shot during the massacre.

The family played that tape at a news conference last week.

"You could hear glass breaking, you could see kids running everywhere, and that's when I see the boy coming down the sidewalk, you know, and I see him just fall down," says the voice, whom the family identified as belonging to Taylor.

But in a written statement on Dec. 31, Taylor said he didn't see the shooting and told the Rohrboughs only what he had seen on television and read in newspapers.

After an internal investigation, Araphoe County Sheriff Pat Sullivan said Wednesday that he fired Taylor because the deputy provided false information to the Rohrbough family which "resulted in aggravating a controversial situation and caused continued distrust."

"The Arapahoe County Internal Affairs Investigation has determined that Deputy Taylor was never in a position, on April 20, 1999, to witness gunfire, hear gunfire or personally see the bodies of deceased victims," the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Department said in a press release.

The Rohrboughs claim that Taylor's statements to them helps prove that a Denver SWAT officer fired the fatal bullet that killed their son, who was fleeing the school during the massacre.

But according to Arapahoe County, Taylor (pictured, left) now says he made up the story he told the Rohrboughs.

"I am extremely disappointed that false information regarding the tragedy of Columbine High School was provided to the families of the victims of Columbine by a member of my staff," Sullivan said. "I sincerely apologize for the unacceptable conduct of one former member of my organization."

The Rohrboughs are not buying any of this. They said their evidence shows Taylor was at the school in a place and time to have seen Danny Rohrbough get shot. They have asked that a federal grand jury investigate their claims that authorities have covered up evidence.

They said Taylor's changing his story now in what they call "yet another coverup."

Taylor has decided not to appeal the case.

During Taylor's 15 years with the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Department, he was never the subject of an internal affairs investigations and performed his responsibilities in an excellent manner, the sheriff said.

Authorities have maintained since the tragedy that gunmen Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were responsible for killing 13 people in the massacre. The two boys took their own lives in the school library.