Chase Lackard was finishing up an important appointment in the Bronx, waiting for his mom to pick him up.
“Be directly in front when I leave,” the 20-year-old said in a text, the kind of message any ride-dependent, still-living-at-home son might send to a parent.
“When?,” mom replied.
But prosecutors say this was no innocent exchange. And it certainly was no ordinary family outing.
According to court records, Lackard, a gun-toting reputed gang member, was planning a drive-by attack on rival gang bangers, and passing along instructions to his getaway-driving accomplice, who happened to be not only his mother but a high-ranking police official in neighboring Mount Vernon.
The strange episode ended with dad, mom and son all busted, and mom fired from her job as a deputy commissioner for public safety, with the NYPD moving in and making arrests Aug. 4. The following account of the events leading up the arrests is based on police records, court statements and interviews with neighbors.
On the morning of June 29, as a heat wave draped the Bronx in humid air, the close-knit family left their home in Soundview with Lackard’s mom, Jennifer Lackard, 49, behind the wheel of a tan Chrysler Pacifica minivan. Chase, wearing a gray hooded Nike sweatshirt, gray Nike shorts, gray and white sneakers, was riding shotgun up front. Chase’s dad, James Lackard, sat behind them in the back.
Also in the car, along with their cell phones and Chase’s black-and-white backpack, was a loaded semiautomatic gun.
The family made their way west through the streets of the Bronx to the courthouse on 161st St, where Chase had a hearing on his ongoing case stemming from a November 2024 clash with NYPD cops in which he was shot and wounded by police. Once they arrived at the courthouse, Chase got out of the minivan while his mother moved to the front passenger seat, and his father slipped behind the wheel.
A short time later, Chase sent his mom a message from his iPhone, instructing her to be out front when he was ready to leave.
But Jennifer apparently didn’t like that plan.
“You can’t just sit directly outside,” she instructed. “It has to be timed right.”
When his court appearance was over, prosecutors said, Chase put on a mask, went outside and got in the backseat of the minivan, where his parents were waiting at a bus stop. For the next 45 minutes, until about noon, the van circled the courthouse several times, until they saw Chase’s target.
Then, the back window on the driver’s side went down, and Chase opened fire at a group near the courthouse, hitting no one, but terrifying everyone on the street.
“These defendants allegedly conspired with each other to drive from their Bronx residence to the Hall of Justice for the purpose of shooting someone,” Bronx DA Darcel Clark said in a statement after Chase and his parents were indicted. “Despite multiple shots being fired, thankfully no one was hit.”
Chase, authorities say, is a member of the “Slutty Gang” with a track record of involvement in gang violence accused of having run-ins with the cops before.
He was shot in Soundview by NYPD cops responding to a clash at the Stevenson Commons residential tower on White Plains Road near Lafayette Ave. They 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.
Three months earlier, Chase was busted for carrying a loaded gun and was granted supervised release, sources said. And in January 2023, when he was 17, Chase made headlines when he was shot in the chest on an MTA Bx5 bus in Soundview during a gang-related fight, police said at the time.
After the courthouse shooting, the van sped off with the father at the wheel. Moments later, the parents switched seats, putting Mount Vernon’s deputy commissioner of public safety behind the wheel of a vehicle that had just been used in an attempted murder to which she was an accomplice, authorities said.
Chase, meanwhile, changed his clothes in the backseat, before his parents dropped him off at their home, officials said. Jennifer and James drove to a nearby parking lot, ditched the minivan and drove away in a black SUV.
Five weeks later, aided by surveillance video that helped investigators piece together sequence of events, cops executed a search warrant on the Lackard home, where they recovered a loaded .45 caliber semiautomatic pistol from a purse inside Chase’s bedroom.
Chase and his mother were arrested and charged with attempted murder, conspiracy and a host of other charges. The boy’s father, James, was in North Carolina when his wife and son were arrested. He returned to the city and surrendered, police said.
All three pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
Jennifer Lackard was immediately fired from her Mount Vernon Police Department job. Her salary this year was $125,000.
As deputy commissioner, Jennifer Lackard’s duties focused on police reform, community complaints and community relations. In 2022, she started the department’s “Wellness Division,” aimed at “intercepting people who need services instead of handcuffs,” according to News 12 .
In 2019, Jennifer, who had never previously served in law enforcement, attended and graduated from the NYPD’s Citizen Police Academy.
“We’re not going to wait for you to come to us. We are not going to wait for you to be overwhelmed and frustrated that protesting is your only option,” Lackard told CBS New York after her appointment. “We’re coming to you and going to work with you to protect your civil liberties in order to build a safer and more vibrant city.”
Her promise of a safer city, though, apparently didn’t apply to gang beefs involving her own son.
“It is stunning,” DA Clark said, “that this public official would jeopardize her position and reputation to be involved in this alleged conspiracy.”