36-year-old Ernie ‘Poncho’ Gardner dies nearly two months after being wounded in Humboldt Park shooting

Ernie “Poncho” Gardner died Tuesday morning, nearly two months after he was shot multiple times in the West Side Humboldt Park neighborhood.

About 2:30 p.m. June 28, the 36-year-old Gardner was in the 4000 block of West Division when someone walked up and fired shots, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Gardner tried to run across the street, but was shot in the chest, hip and leg, authorities said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital.

A bullet also struck the window of a passing vehicle and the broken glass cut the 23-year-old driver’s head and arms, police said. He was also taken to Mount Sinai.

Gardner, a South Shore neighborhood resident, died at Sinai at 2:22 a.m. Tuesday, according to the medical examiner’s office. An autopsy found he died of complications from multiple gunshot wounds, and his death was ruled a homicide.

The suspect ran off after the shooting, police said. Area North detectives are investigating.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

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