Texas has fired basketball coach Chris Beard, some three weeks after he was arrested on a felony domestic violence charge.

Beard, 49, was arrested Dec. 12 after being accused of choking and biting his fiancé. He had been suspended without pay since that same day, with Rodney Terry serving as interim coach.

On Thursday, however, Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte announced Beard had been fired. Del Conte released the following statement via the school’s website:

“The University of Texas has parted ways with Chris Beard. This has been a difficult situation that we’ve been diligently working through. Today I informed Mr. Beard of our decision to terminate him effective immediately.

“We thank Coach Rodney Terry for his exemplary leadership both on and off the court at a time when our team needed it most. We are grateful he will remain the acting head coach for the remainder of the season.

“We are proud of our student-athletes, coaches and staff, who throughout this difficult time have continued to make us proud to be Longhorns.”

Beard was in his second season at Texas after five at Texas Tech. The Red Raiders were NCAA tournament runner-up in 2019, while the Longhorns reached the second round of the tournament last season.

Beard has also coached at McMurry, Angelo State and Little Rock. The Trojans went 30-5 and won the Sun Belt Conference championship in his lone season there.

Texas is 12-2 and ranked No. 6 nationally heading into Saturday’s Big 12 Conference game at Oklahoma State.