A Mount Vernon deputy police commissioner has been arrested and charged with attempted murder for allegedly serving as the getaway driver after her son opened fire in a gang shooting behind a Bronx courthouse — the kind of two-tier justice ordinary Americans can't access when they're the ones pulling the trigger.
Jennifer Lackard, 49, the Mount Vernon Police Department's deputy commissioner of wellness, was arrested Tuesday along with her 20-year-old son, Chase Lackard, after a Bronx grand jury indicted the family on more than a dozen counts including second-degree attempted murder, firearm offenses, and conspiracy. Her husband, James Lackard, has not been apprehended.
According to the indictment, the scheme unfolded June 29 behind the Bronx Hall of Justice. Jennifer Lackard drove her son and husband from a Bronx residence to the courthouse that morning. She then texted with Chase about coordinating the pickup. "Be directly In Fromt When I Leave," Chase allegedly texted her. She responded: "When?" followed by, "You can't just sit directly outside. It has to be timed right."
After picking them both up in front of the courthouse, James Lackard allegedly drove behind the building, where Chase Lackard fired a semiautomatic firearm multiple times through the driver's side passenger window at a rival gang member. No one was struck. Jennifer Lackard then took the wheel and drove the trio back to the residence, where Chase changed his clothing "to avoid identification," the indictment states.
A deputy commissioner texting getaway logistics and driving the escape car after a gang shooting — if that's not using your position to shield family from accountability, nothing is. Any ordinary American caught in that chain of events would already be buried under the jail.
The Mount Vernon Police Department fired Lackard effective immediately — then immediately tried to distance itself. "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 department said in a statement. A wellness deputy commissioner allegedly coordinating a gang shooting getaway is apparently just a personal hobby.
At her arraignment Tuesday, Lackard's attorney maintained she "has dedicated her career to helping others." She pleaded not guilty and remains in custody on $75,000 bail. Chase Lackard pleaded not guilty Wednesday and was remanded. Both are due back in court next month.
The case is being prosecuted by the Bronx County District Attorney's Office. The open question: whether a member of the law enforcement class faces the same ceiling of justice that a regular citizen would — or whether the system, as it so often does, finds a way to soften the landing for one of its own.
