A deputy police commissioner in Mount Vernon, New York, was fired Tuesday after she was arrested for allegedly driving the getaway car for her son in an attempted murder—proving again that the rot inside American institutions starts at the top, not the bottom.
Jennifer Lackard, 49, deputy commissioner of the Mount Vernon Police Department's Wellness Unit, and her 20-year-old son Chase were both hit with charges of attempted murder, attempted assault, gun possession, conspiracy, and reckless endangerment, according to the New York Daily News, cited by The Guardian. Police say Chase Lackard fired at a group of people outside the Bronx Criminal Court just before midnight on June 29, then jumped into a car his mother drove from the scene at speed. Nobody was hit.
The city terminated Lackard's employment immediately. "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," the city's statement read—a formulation that raises the question of why she was employed there in the first place.
The New York Post reported that Chase Lackard is a member of a gang called "Slutty Gang." The Guardian omitted that detail entirely, referring only to the charges and the son's prior history as a shooting victim. What neither outlet disputes is the paper trail of red flags that preceded this arrest.
In January 2023, Chase Lackard—then 17—was shot in the chest on a bus in what was reported as a dispute over gang signs. A 14-year-old from a rival gang was charged with attempted murder. At the time, Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard called Jennifer Lackard "a valuable member of our leadership team" and said the city was praying for her son's recovery. No questions appear to have been asked about why a deputy police commissioner's teenager was involved in gang violence.
Then in September 2024, Chase Lackard was arrested on a gun charge. NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell confirmed the arrest to reporters. The mayor's response: "a personal matter and we are praying for the family."
Two months later, in November 2024, Bronx police responded to reports of a large fight and shot Chase Lackard after he allegedly pointed a 9mm pistol at an officer's car. He was hospitalized with two gunshot wounds to a leg and criminally charged. Still, his mother kept her badge and her title.
According to the See Through NY government transparency website, Lackard collected a salary of $138,219 in 2025—taxpayer money for a wellness chief whose own household was anything but. At no point did the mayor's office or the department leadership treat the mounting violence as a disqualifier for a senior law enforcement role.
The pattern is familiar: an institution run by people who talk about wellness and safety while the streets get less safe and the people entrusted with order operate above the rules they enforce on everyone else. Patterson-Howard had every opportunity to act after the 2023 gang shooting, after the 2024 gun arrest, after the 2024 police shooting. Each time, she chose prayer over accountability—until the allegations became impossible to ignore.
No lawyer was listed for the Lackards as of Tuesday. The Bronx County District Attorney's office has not publicly commented.
The question that lingers isn't why Jennifer Lackard was fired on Tuesday. It's why it took a felony arrest—after years of warning signs—for Mount Vernon's leadership to act at all.
