By Colin Mixson
New York Daily News
MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. — A high-ranking official with the Mount Vernon Police Department accused of participating in an attempted gang hit outside a Bronx courthouse gave her gun-toting son explicit instructions on how to carry out the would-be hit and even told him via text on where to stand and other logistics, a bombshell indictment released Tuesday shows.
As they waited outside the Bronx Hall of Justice near E. 162nd St. and Grand Ave. on June 29, Chase Lackard and his mother Jennifer Lackard, the MVPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety, exchanged texts as they mapped out the would-be hit, the indictment states.
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Chase, 20, texted his 49-year-old mother, “Be directly in front when I leave,” according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.
“When?” his mother texted back, according to the indictment. “You can’t just sit directly outside. It has to be timed right.”
Chase then donned a black mask and entered a tan Chrysler Pacifica with his mother and father, James Lackard, who drove the pair in circles around the Bronx Hall of Justice for about 45 minutes before pulling up behind the courthouse, where Chase fired through a rolled-down window from the car’s backseat, prosecutors said.
No one was injured in the attack.
Following the shooting, Jennifer switched seats with her husband and drove her family to Soundview, where her son changed clothes before entering a nearby residential building on Boynton Ave, the indictment notes.
His mother and father then drove to a nearby parking lot, where they ditched the Chrysler before walking to a black SUV also parked there, court documents show.
Jennifer and her son were arrested Tuesday when police at 5:30 a.m. showed up with a warrant at their home in the Soundview section of the Bronx, police said. Jennifer has been fired from her position “effective immediately,” the Mount Vernon Police Department said in a statement hours after her arrest.
The incident was linked to gang tensions, police said.
James Lackard is currently in North Carolina, officials said. It was not immediately clear if he was in custody Tuesday.
In November 2024, the son, who authorities say is a member of the “Slutty Gang,” was shot in Soundview by NYPD cops. Officers responding to a clash at the Stevenson Commons residential tower on White Plains Road near Lafayette Ave. saw him waving a gun, police said at the time.
Chase was shot twice in the leg by police after he allegedly pointed his .9-mm pistol at officers, police said. He was later charged with criminal use of a firearm and menacing a police officer.
Jennifer’s husband James Lackard was arrested in North Carolina on federal drug trafficking charges in 2012, and Lackard said she used her experiences during the time he was locked up to help mentor wives whose husbands are incarcerated.
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