A 20-year-old reputed gang member allegedly opened fire on a rival just minutes after leaving a Bronx courthouse, and prosecutors say his mother, a deputy police commissioner, and his ex-con father drove him away from the scene.
Chase Lackard had been inside the Bronx Criminal Court on a 2024 gun possession charge. Roughly twenty minutes after that appearance, he allegedly carried out a drive-by shooting targeting a rival on June 29, the New York Post reported. His mother, 49-year-old Jennifer Lackard, then the Mount Vernon Deputy Police Commissioner, and his father, James Lackard, a convicted heroin dealer who served 10 years in federal prison, allegedly waited outside and served as getaway drivers.
A Bronx grand jury indicted all three. Chase Lackard was ordered held without bail. Jennifer Lackard was arraigned Tuesday with bail set at $75,000. James Lackard remains a fugitive.
Bronx Assistant District Attorney Keturah Ladd laid out the timeline for the judge during Chase Lackard's court proceedings Wednesday:
"He's captured on cameras running into this courthouse. He had a court date and a court appearance on the third floor of this building."
The sequence is striking. Chase Lackard appeared before a judge on a gun rap, walked out, and, according to prosecutors, committed a drive-by shooting in the same borough within the span of roughly 20 minutes. His parents allegedly provided the car and the escape route.
Both mother and son face charges including attempted murder, attempted assault, criminal possession of a firearm, conspiracy, and reckless endangerment, Fox News reported. Chase Lackard is described as a reputed member of a gang known as "Slutty Gang." He already had two open gun possession cases, one in Manhattan, one in the Bronx, before the June 29 shooting.
Two prior gun cases and a court date on a third. And still on the street.
Jennifer Lackard's position at the Mount Vernon Police Department raises its own questions. Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard hired her in 2020 to run a newly created Wellness Unit inside the department. Her base salary was $125,000, and online payroll records show she took home $138,219 last year.
Before that appointment, Jennifer Lackard served on Bronx Community Board 9 and founded Re-Entry Link LLC, a Bronx nonprofit. She and James Lackard had also co-founded a nonprofit in North Carolina, one that shut down after James Lackard's federal conviction for peddling heroin.
It remains unclear why Patterson-Howard hired Lackard to a law enforcement leadership role given her affiliation with a convicted drug dealer and her lack of policing experience. The mayor's office did not respond to a request for comment. Both Jennifer Lackard and the mayor attend the same church, Grace Baptist Church, described as a politically influential Mount Vernon congregation. Jennifer Lackard lists her membership on her Facebook profile.
The Mount Vernon Police Department issued a statement distancing itself from the charges. The department said the allegations "are unrelated to her duties with the Mount Vernon Police Department and do not stem from any conduct associated with the Department or the performance of her official responsibilities."
Jennifer Lackard was fired after her arrest.
Chase Lackard's criminal history extends beyond the gun possession charges. Fox News reported that he had prior run-ins with law enforcement, including being shot by police in 2024. By the time of the alleged June 29 drive-by, he was carrying two open gun cases and facing a judge on a third, and prosecutors say he used the gap between a court appearance and the courthouse exit to plot or execute the shooting.
His father, James Lackard, served a decade in federal prison for dealing heroin in North Carolina. He is now a fugitive, named in the Bronx indictment but still on the run.
The full picture is difficult to square with any system working the way it should. A young man with two open gun cases walks into a courthouse, appears before a judge, walks out, and allegedly shoots at someone within minutes, with his parents waiting in the car. His mother holds a six-figure taxpayer-funded position inside a police department despite no law enforcement background and a direct personal connection to a federal drug conviction. His father, the convicted heroin dealer, is a co-defendant and a fugitive.
No one in this chain, not the courts that left Chase Lackard free on multiple gun charges, not the mayor who created a police department job for Jennifer Lackard, not the system that was supposed to keep track of James Lackard, produced a result that protected the public.
Prosecutors have now brought indictments. Chase Lackard sits in custody without bail. Jennifer Lackard faces attempted murder charges and lost her job. James Lackard is wanted. But the shooting happened. The rival was targeted. And every institution that could have intervened earlier did not.
When a deputy police commissioner is allegedly driving the getaway car for her son's gang shooting, the problem is not one bad family. It is a system that stopped asking basic questions a long time ago.
