Mount Vernon, New York fired deputy police commissioner Jennifer Lackard on August 4, 2026, after she was arrested at her Bronx home and charged with attempted murder. Police say she drove the getaway car for her 20-year-old son, Chase Lackard, after he fired shots at a group of people outside the Bronx Criminal Courthouse. The Guardian

The city announced her firing in an Instagram post, calling her the former deputy police commissioner of wellness. The city said the charges had nothing to do with her work for the Mount Vernon police department. The Guardian

Jennifer Lackard, 49, and Chase Lackard were arrested on August 4 at their home in the Bronx. The NYPD charged Jennifer with attempted murder tied to a shooting on June 29, 2026. In that shooting, someone fired at a group of people outside the Bronx criminal court building. PIX11

Police say Chase Lackard was the shooter. After firing at the group, he jumped into a car that his mother drove away from the scene at high speed. No one was hit or hurt in the shooting. Both Jennifer and Chase were charged with attempted murder, attempted assault, gun possession, conspiracy, and reckless endangerment. The Guardian

These charges are the latest in a string of violent incidents involving Chase Lackard and, separately, his mother over several years. In January 2023, when Chase was 17, he was shot in the chest on a city bus in a reported dispute over gang signs involving three other boys. A 14-year-old from a rival gang was arrested and charged with attempted murder for that shooting. Afterward, Mount Vernon mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard called Jennifer Lackard "a valuable member of our leadership team." The Guardian

In November 2024, police in the Bronx shot Chase Lackard, then 19, after they say he pointed a 9mm pistol at an officer's car. He was hospitalized with two gunshot wounds to a leg and later charged with a crime. One month before that, in September 2024, Jennifer Lackard was herself arrested on a gun charge. The Guardian

Jennifer Lackard became deputy police commissioner in July 2020, alongside Ernest Morales III, a 30-year NYPD veteran. She was described at the time as a civilian, meaning someone without a police background, and a justice reform advocate. According to the See Through NY government transparency database, her salary in 2025 was $138,219. The Guardian; Mount Vernon City Government

The bigger picture here deserves attention. Lackard was put in charge of helping oversee a police department as a reform advocate, then faced a gun charge about four years into the job, and now stands accused of joining her son in a violent crime. The city's statement that the charges are unrelated to her work is technically true, since the Bronx shooting happened outside her area of authority. But her son's history of increasingly serious run-ins with the law, paired with her own gun charge, raises fair questions about how carefully people are screened before being given leadership roles in policing. The mayor's public support for Lackard after the 2023 bus shooting now looks like an early warning sign that went unheeded.

The location of the June 29 shooting also matters. Firing a gun outside a courthouse, where defendants, witnesses, and court staff all gather, raises concerns about security at court buildings and the safety of the justice system itself. That no one was hurt was luck, not planning.

The case now enters the criminal court process, with both Jennifer and Chase Lackard facing five charges each. Mount Vernon moved quickly to cut ties with Lackard, announcing the firing on social media rather than through a traditional press release, a choice that suggests the city wanted to control the story on its own terms.