Boy, 13, dies from bullet shot into air like firework
‘It came right from the sky,’ police say
A 13-year-old boy died on Saturday, a week after he was struck in the head by a bullet that fell from the sky in Hammond, Ind. Police believe the bullet was shot into the air “like a firework” during Fourth of July celebrations — though it’s unclear whether the shot was fired from a block away or from a neighbouring city.
The boy was playing basketball in an alleyway behind a friend’s house on July 1. It was a popular night for Independence Day fireworks in Hammond, a leafy suburb outside Chicago. “The whole city was celebrating,” Hammond Police Lt. Steven Kellogg said. “Everyone was shooting fireworks and, unfortunately, firearms. Sometimes they do that.”
Around 9:30 p.m., the boy collapsed in the alley.
“He just fell over,” Kellogg said.
No one in the area heard a gunshot. People on scene thought the boy was having a seizure. But in hospital, doctors found a bullet lodged in the top of his head.
“It came right from the sky,” Kellogg said.
The boy, who local media have identified as 13-yearold Noah Inman, died on Saturday afternoon after spending a week in critical condition in hospital. Noah’s baseball coach told the Chicago Tribune that the boy was “one of the perfect kids.”
“He hustled in everything he did. If you told him to catch on a 100-degree day, he would catch the whole game,” the coach, Juan Maldonado, said. “If you had to bench him because there were too many kids, he would sit without complaining.”
Police said an autopsy on the boy will recover the bullet, bringing them closer to determining what kind of gun it came from. On Monday, detectives did not have a suspect in custody. The bullet, police said, could have come from the same neighbourhood, or one of the many cities that border Hammond.
“I don’ t know what (people who shoot their guns in the air) think happens — the bullet disappears into thin air?” Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. told the Tribune.
“It’s like getting struck by lightning — so senseless.”