{"id":316824,"date":"2026-08-08T18:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/316824\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:30:16","slug":"inside-the-tragic-tale-of-the-public-safety-official-turned-sons-getaway-driver-in-bronx-drive-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/316824\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the tragic tale of the public safety official turned son’s getaway driver in Bronx drive-by"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chase Lackard was finishing up an important appointment in the Bronx, waiting for his mom to pick him up.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201dBe directly in front when I leave,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen?,\u201d mom replied.<\/p>\n

But prosecutors say this was no innocent exchange. And it certainly was no ordinary family outing.<\/p>\n

According to court records, Lackard, a gun-toting reputed gang member, was planning a drive-by attack on rival gang bangers,<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s dad, James Lackard, sat behind them in the back.<\/p>\n

Also in the car, along with their cell phones and Chase\u2019s black-and-white backpack, was a loaded semiautomatic gun.<\/p>\n

\"JenniferJennifer Lackard (inset and main), Mount Vernon Police Department\u2019s former Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety, is pictured in police custody leaving the NYPD’s 44th Precinct stationhouse on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, in the Bronx. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The family made their way west through the streets of the Bronx to the courthouse on 161st St, \u00a0where 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But Jennifer apparently didn\u2019t like that plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t just sit directly outside,\u201d she instructed. \u201cIt has to be timed right.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 several times, until they saw Chase\u2019s target.<\/p>\n

Then, the back window on the driver\u2019s side went down, and opened fire at a group near the courthouse,<\/a> hitting no one, but terrifying everyone on the street.<\/p>\n

\"ChaseChase Lackard appears in Bronx Supreme Court on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, in New York City. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

\u201cThese defendants allegedly conspired with each other to drive from their Bronx residence to the Hall of Justice for the purpose of shooting someone,\u201d Bronx DA Darcel Clark said in a statement after Chase and his parents were indicted. \u201cDespite multiple shots being fired, thankfully no one was hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chase, authorities say, is a member of the \u201cSlutty Gang\u201d with a track record of involvement in gang violence accused of having run-ins with the cops before.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0shot in the chest\u00a0on an MTA Bx5 bus in Soundview during a gang-related fight, police said at the time.<\/p>\n

After the courthouse shooting, the van sped off with the father at the wheel. Moments later, the parents switched seats, putting Mount Vernon\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s bedroom.<\/p>\n

Chase and his mother were arrested and charged with attempted murder, conspiracy and a host of other charges. The boy\u2019s father, James, was in North Carolina when his wife and son were arrested. He returned to the city and surrendered,<\/a> police said.<\/p>\n

All three pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Lackard was immediately fired from her Mount Vernon Police Department job. Her salary this year was $125,000.<\/p>\n

As deputy commissioner, Jennifer Lackard\u2019s duties focused on police reform, community complaints and community relations. In 2022, she started the department\u2019s \u201cWellness Division,\u201d aimed at \u201cintercepting people who need services instead of handcuffs,\u201d according to\u00a0 News 12 .<\/p>\n

In 2019, Jennifer, who had never previously served in law enforcement, attended and graduated from the NYPD\u2019s Citizen Police Academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re 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,\u201d Lackard told CBS New York after her appointment. \u201cWe\u2019re coming to you and going to work with you to protect your civil liberties in order to build a safer and more vibrant city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her promise of a safer city, though, apparently didn\u2019t apply to gang beefs involving her own son.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is stunning,\u201d DA Clark said, \u201cthat this public official would jeopardize her position and reputation to be involved in this alleged conspiracy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chase Lackard was finishing up an important appointment in the Bronx, waiting for his mom to pick him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,265,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-316824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-sub-county-region","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}