By Charley Able
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

GOLDEN -- Jefferson County Sheriff's officials want Alabama authorities to find and prosecute the person who "stole" a copy of the Columbine High School videotape at a law enforcment conference.

Jefferson County Undersheriff John Dunaway said Wednesday that the tape was provided to Littleton Fire Department officials for use in presentations to professional organizations.

The Sheriff's Office provided the footage to the fire department because it shows Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold trying to detonate propane tanks rigged as bombs and could be helpful in training firefighters who could be in a similar situation.

The presentation containing the 30 to 90 seconds of videotape wound up in the hands of Arapahoe County Sheriff Pat Sullivan, who used it at a meeting of the National Sheriffs Association in Alabama, Dunaway said.

Dunaway said he and Sullivan believe a computer disk version of the tape was copied after it was put into a laptop computer for projection during a presentation. Instead of simply playing the disk, it probably was copied onto the computer hard drive and copies later were produced.

But Dunaway said that scenario has not been proved and is speculation at this point.

No further release of the tape was authorized, Dunaway said.

"I have no doubt ... that everybody was acting in good faith," Dunaway said. "Where the thing went south was when this thing was reproduced without authorization and then sent for people to use for their own, perhaps legitimate, purposes."

A copy of the tape was played Monday at a college seminar in Albuquerque. A news crew for KRQE-TV copied it, broadcast it and provided it to CBS News. The network broadcast it nationally Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Sullivan notified Jefferson County officials early Wednesday that the televised footage apparently originated from the tape he used in Alabama. Dunaway acknowledged that the agency has no idea how many copies exist.

Televising the tape does not compromise the investigation of the Columbine shootings, in which Klebold and Harris killed 12 of their schoolmates and a teacher before taking their own lives, Dunaway said.