A Mount Vernon police official is accused of helping her son’s alleged gang shooting turn into a family getaway, complete with a text warning that the pickup outside a Bronx courthouse had to be timed just right.
Jennifer Lackard, 49, who worked as deputy commissioner of wellness for the Mount Vernon Police Department, is charged alongside her husband and 20-year-old son, Chase Lackard, after prosecutors said the family took part in a June 29 shooting outside the Bronx Criminal Courthouse.
The alleged target was a suspected rival gang member.
Before the gunfire, Chase Lackard told his mother to pick him up in front of the courthouse, according to ABC News.
Jennifer Lackard allegedly asked what time she needed to be there.
“You can’t just sit directly outside. It has to be timed right,” she texted, according to ABC News, citing the indictment.
Prosecutors say the Lackards arrived outside the courthouse around noon in a tan Chrysler Pacifica.
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Jennifer Lackard and her husband, James Lackard, allegedly drove their son there before Chase Lackard fired a semiautomatic gun from the vehicle’s window, WABC-TV reported.
Chase Lackard was described by prosecutors as a reported member of the Slutty Gang. The person he allegedly targeted was a member of the Sex Money Murder crew.
The shots missed, and nobody was injured. After the courthouse attack, the indictment says the family returned home. ABC News reported that Chase Lackard changed clothing “to avoid identification.”
Prosecutors said the shooting was captured on surveillance video.
The case put a civilian police leader in the middle of an attempted-murder prosecution involving her own son and husband.
The first arrests came before sunrise Tuesday, when Jennifer Lackard and Chase Lackard were taken into custody during a search of the family’s Bronx apartment, WCBS-TV reported. Jennifer Lackard pleaded not guilty.
James Lackard, 47, later surrendered at the 44th Precinct station house in the Bronx, according to the New York Post.
The three defendants face attempted murder, three counts of attempted assault, six counts of weapons possession, conspiracy and reckless endangerment, WCBS-TV reported.
The New York Post cited court records showing that Jennifer Lackard and Chase Lackard were each released on $75,000 bail. James Lackard was held on $300,000 bail.
The Mount Vernon Police Department later confirmed that James Lackard’s past had been reviewed before Jennifer Lackard was hired.
“As part of the hiring process, information regarding her husband’s prior criminal history was disclosed and reviewed and deemed not to be disqualifying for her civilian position,” the department said in a statement.
The department said it would not comment further because the investigation remains active.
James Lackard’s background includes prison time for a drug conviction tied to a 2012 federal indictment, followed by another guilty plea in a separate federal drug case, WCBS-TV reported.
Chase Lackard had also been involved in multiple earlier police matters, according to the Journal News.
The outlet said he has pending criminal cases in the Bronx and Manhattan.
In November 2024, Chase Lackard was arrested after an NYPD officer shot him in the leg following a fight in the Soundview neighborhood, where he allegedly pointed a gun at officers, according to the Journal News.
Three months before that, he was arrested on gun charges in Manhattan.
In 2023, he was shot in the chest during a gang-related fight on an MTA bus in the Bronx.
The allegations against Jennifer Lackard echoed other cases in which mothers have been accused of helping sons after violent crimes.
In Minnesota, Christa Marie Wolner, 53, of Mankato, is accused of helping her son after the May 23, 2026, shooting death of 17-year-old Tyson Goodsell in a North Mankato residential neighborhood.
Her son, Ryan Wolner, is facing nine felony counts in the homicide case, including aiding and abetting second-degree murder. He is being held on $3 million bail.
Prosecutors say Goodsell had arranged to sell THC cartridges to Jaxon Sageng, but the meeting was actually a robbery setup.
Ryan Wolner allegedly used Sageng’s car and phone to draw Goodsell to the meeting, while co-defendant Abdikhadar Mohidin shot the teen in the head with a rifle.
Goodsell was found in his locked vehicle after it rolled back into a residence. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
In Nicollet County District Court, Christa Wolner was hit with four felony charges accusing her of aiding an offender and helping him avoid arrest.
The criminal complaint says she picked up Ryan Wolner from her business in Mankato after calls came from him in the hours after the shooting.
Prosecutors also accuse her of driving him to search for discarded cell phones, paying for a hotel for his codefendants, moving evidence while he was in jail and deleting security footage from her business.
Investigators say she let her son use her cell phone to communicate with codefendants, lied about where the phone was during a search warrant and refused to provide its passcode.
When asked whether she questioned why her son needed a ride that night, Christa Wolner said she did not ask, but “knew something was going on” and “didn’t want to know yet,” according to the complaint.
In Alabama, Sonya Cross-McAdoo of Montgomery was arrested in May as an accessory to murder after Escambia County deputies said she helped her son, Devaughn Williamson, flee after a March 4 homicide.
The sheriff’s office said Cross-McAdoo picked him up in Montgomery on March 5 before the route continued through Houston and Phoenix, with El Paso as the intended next stop.
Williamson was caught April 17 at a Phoenix bus stop while waiting for a bus to El Paso, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies said he had a bag containing his cut-off dreadlocks and a gun.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office said investigators connected Williamson to the homicide while working a missing-person case and later determined the missing person was the victim.
Investigators believe the killing was drug-related.
Williamson was extradited to Escambia County and is now in jail.
The sheriff’s office said it believes Cross-McAdoo knew what Williamson had done.
