GOLDEN, Colo. -- The man in charge of the Columbine High School shooting investigation expressed suspicions about three teens who knew the gunmen and waited outside during the massacre. He also said "the entire carnage" in the school cafeteria was captured on videotape.
"They were in combat fatigues," Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone said, referring to the three young men. "They said they heard it on the radio. Well, it wasn't on the radio at that time."Stone declined to name the three teens, who have been questioned but not formally named as suspects in the April 20 rampage that left 15 dead.
"They are subjects of our investigation," Stone told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "We'll be going back to talk to these kids."
Meanwhile, a Marine Corps spokesman said Wednesday that 18-year-old gunman Eric Harris had tried to enlist but was told by a recruiter visiting his home on April 15 that he had been rejected.
"He was disqualified for a medical reason," 1st Lt. Jeff Sammons said from Quantico, Va.
Harris, who had been contacted by the Marines in a routine recruiting call, had failed to disclose that medical factor during a telephone screening April 2 and a face-to-face interview April 5, Sammons said.
However, Harris' parents told the recruiter about the medical situation, he said.
The Marines refused to discuss the medical reason, but a Harris family friend, Victor Good, told The New York Times that the teen had been taking psychiatric medicine -- a potentially disqualifying factor -- and seeing a psychiatrist.
Sheriff Stone for the first time laid out a timeline for the attack at the Littleton school. He also said a school surveillance camera filmed the bloody scene in the cafeteria, where no one died but wounded students were found strewn about the floor.
At a news conference called after Stone made his comments to the AP, the sheriff objected to the emphasis of the story without disputing most of his earlier statements.
He said he did not recall using the word "subjects" and that no individual was the focus of the investigation. He also said he didn't recall telling the AP that the three were among his "best leads" into a possible conspiracy.
But when asked if investigators had cleared the three teens, Stone said: "In my mind, it has not been put to rest nor have my investigators communicated back to me that these people are totally clear of any suspicion."
Harris and Dylan Klebold, 17, killed 12 classmates and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves. In a field outside, the three young men in dark jackets and combat-style boots were stopped by deputies as television cameras broadcast the scene nationwide. They were frisked and taken off for interrogation. They carried no weapons.
Stone said he has questioned for days whether the gunmen acted alone.
"There's too much stuff in there," he said. "You can't walk in there blazing with more stuff than you can carry."
The three young men, who Stone said knew the gunmen and had previously been associated with their "Trenchcoat Mafia," have maintained their innocence. Investigators tested them for gun residue after the shootings and found no evidence that they had fired guns.
Funerals for victims Matthew Kechter and Kyle Velasquez, both 16, and Corey DePooter, 17 were held Tuesday.