A top-ranking Westchester County police official is accused of driving the getaway car after her gangbanger son shot at gang rivals outside a Bronx courthouse last month.
Jennifer Lackard was terminated from her job as the deputy police commissioner with the Mount Vernon Police Department hours after her arrest on Tuesday, August 4.
Police say Lackard agreed to help her son Chase Lackard plan a hit on rival gang members outside the Bronx Criminal Court on June 29.
Lackard and her husband James Lackard helped their son Chase Lackard plan the hit in a series of text messages.
James Lackard drove his wife, Jennifer, and their 20-year-old son, Chase, to the Bronx Criminal Court around 11:57 a.m. on June 29.
Chase got out of the car and entered the courthouse. He texted his mother and told her to meet him in front of the building. “Be directly in Fromt [sic] When I Leave,” he text her, according to the indictment.
Jennifer responded, “When? You can’t just sit directly outside. It has to be timed right.”
Chase exited the building wearing a face mask and hopped into the backseat.
Chase Lackard spotted the rival gang members and opened fire out of the car window with a semi-automatic weapon. But he missed his targets, according to the indictment.
Jennifer and James switched seats, and she drove the getaway car while her son changed clothes in the backseat.
Jennifer was arrested on Tuesday, but her husband, James, is still on the run. He served 10 years in prison for dealing heroin in North Carolina. He was released in 2020, according to prison records obtained by the New York Post.
Jennifer was ordered held in jail on $75,000 bail. She was fired from her $138,000 a year job.
Chase’s girlfriend was also arrested, but her role in the bizarre plan wasn’t explained in the indictment.