Three family members are facing charges in New York City for attempting to carry out a gang-related hit outside the Bronx Criminal Court in late June.
Reputed “Slutty Gang” member Chase Lackard, 20, was charged in the attempted hit of a member of rival gang P. Laafay. His mother, 49-year-old former Mount Vernon Deputy Police Commissioner Jennifer Lackard, was arrested with him on Tuesday and charged as an accomplice. His father, James Lackard, 47 — an ex-con who did time on drug charges — turned himself in on Thursday.
According to a series of reports published by The New York Post, both Jennifer and James helped their gang-banging son to plan and then carry out the attempted hit on June 29. After dropping mother and son off at the criminal court building, James drove around the area and returned to pick them up.
Text messages from that timeframe showed Jennifer helping Chase work out how to carry out the next part of their plan.
“Be directly in Fromt (sic) When I Leave,” Chase told his mother in a text message.
“When? … You can’t just sit directly outside. It has to be timed right,” she said in response.
When they left the building, according to court documents, Chase got into the back seat and his mother rode in the passenger seat. They circled the block, and when Chase spotted his intended target, he reportedly fired several shots from the vehicle but missed. The family then drove away from the area, stopping a short distance away so that the parents could switch seats and Chase could change clothes in the car.
Both Chase and his mother were arrested at their home on Tuesday — after which Jennifer Lackard was immediately fired from her job with the police department: “Effective immediately, the City of Mount Vernon has terminated Jennifer Lackard’s employment. 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.”
Lackard, prior to her termination, had been a boss within the Wellness Unit since 2022 and had advocated for her precinct to respond to mental health issues without resorting to traditional policing methods: “A lot of the people we encounter are in a mental health crisis. Some are combatant, some are really, really aggressive and some are not. And some are frequent fliers because they don’t have support.”
Damon Jones, who previously worked for three decades at the Westchester County Department of Corrections and now publishes Black Westchester Magazine, was incensed.
“This is f*cking embarrassing! I am embarrassed as a black law enforcement officer to see the dysfunction in a city that has a black mayor, a majority of black city council, a majority black police department that we have to see continuing dysfunction and just foolery in an organization that should be so professional,” he told The Post.
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