HOUSTON, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Lt. Mariano Pargas, the acting police chief during the May 24 mass school shooting killing 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, U.S. state of Texas, has resigned from the city's police department, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said on Thursday.
His resignation is effective immediately, according to McLaughlin.
Pargas, who had been suspended with pay since July, was expected to be terminated at a "special meeting" scheduled on Saturday.
An audio recently published by CNN showed that on the day of the shooting at Robb Elementary School, Pargas, aged 65, knew there were children alive and begging for rescue but walked away from the locked classroom without taking action.
Pargas, along with the city of Uvalde and the school district, currently faces a lawsuit from the families of three survivors.
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (CISD) suspended the entire school police force last month partly as a result of parents' protest over the fallout from police response to the school shooting.
A total of 376 law enforcement agents, including the school police officers, responded to the shooting but failed to intervene for 74 minutes, according to a Texas House committee report.
