Lt. Mariano Pargas, the acting police chief during the Uvalde school shooting, steps down

The Uvalde officer who was leading the city's police department during the hesitant law enforcement response to an elementary school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers has stepped down, a city spokeswoman said Thursday.

Lt. Mariano Pargas left the department voluntarily but it was not immediately clear whether he retired or resigned, according to city spokeswoman Gina Eisenberg.

Pargas is the second police leader to lose his job in the fallout since the massacre in May, when hundreds of officers waited more than an hour to confront the gunman inside a classroom at Robb Elementary School.