Victim dies a year after Joliet Township Halloween party shooting

A Joliet gang member who was the target of a shooting at a Halloween party by a rival gang in 2021, has died, police said.

The DuPage County Coroner’s Office notified the Will County Sheriff’s Office about the death of Sergio Hernandez, 20, shortly before noon on Sunday, according to Will County Sheriff’s Deputy Chief Dan Jungles. He did not have the exact date of Hernandez’s death.

Jungles said Hernandez died at a rehabilitation center in DuPage County.

Joskar Ramos, 19, Thomas Lopez, 21, and his brother Jeremy Lopez, 20, have been charged with the attempted murder of Hernandez. Jungles said Hernandez was the target in a shooting at a Halloween party attended by about 200 people on Oct. 31 at a residence at 1018 E. Jackson St. in Joliet Township.

Hernandez was a member of the Latin Kings gang, and Ramos and the Lopez brothers are members of the Vice Lords gang, Jungles said. The Latin Kings and Vice Lords are two of the four major gangs that have been known to operate in Joliet since the 1980s.

Jungles did not have the cause and manner of Hernandez’s death because the results of his autopsy in DuPage County have yet to be completed.

Jungles said Hernandez was paralyzed from the neck down as a result of the Halloween shooting.

“I think it’s pretty safe to assume that the injuries he sustained were life altering for him,” Jungles said.

Ramos and the Lopez brothers also face charges for the murder of Holly Mathews, and Jonathan Ceballos, both 22.

Mathews and Ceballos were caught in the shooting between members of the Latin King and Vice Lord gangs.

Jungles has said members of those gangs had a confrontation at the party and decided to settle their dispute “in cowardly fashion, by shooting their weapons into a crowd of close to 200 people.”

Ramos and the Lopez brothers have also been charged with shooting and injuring five other people in the incident.

Hernandez was charged last year with firing a gun at a vehicle on Feb. 21, 2021, in Joliet.

Representatives of the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office did not respond to questions on whether they plan to continue the prosecution of that case in light of Hernandez’s death.