Figuring out where a falling bullet that fatally struck a 13-year-old boy this month in Hammond came from will be challenging, but it’s possible, forensic experts from Northwest Indiana said.

“It has been done in the past, and it can be done,” said Charles Steele, a forensic lecturer at Purdue University Northwest and adjunct instructor at University of Illinois at Chicago.

Hammond police believe Noah Inman, while playing basketball outside, was hit in the head by a bullet shot by someone nearby at 9:30 p.m. July 1 in the 7300 block of Harrison Avenue, according to Lt. Steve Kellogg, department spokesman.

Noah, described in his obituary as a “very athletic child” with a “contagious” smile, was treated at Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago, where he died Saturday, according to police.

Kellogg said this week that “two of our best detectives” have been working “around the clock” on the case, leaving “no stone unturned.”

“Every day that goes by I know we’re getting just, hopefully, closer to getting the information that we need,” Kellogg said.

It will take skilled, diligent investigators to solve a case like the one following Noah’s death, Steele said.

Detectives first have to reconstruct the scene, Steele said, figuring out where and how everyone was standing. Hammond police said that Noah was playing basketball with a group of children in an alley behind a home before he was hit.

Once detectives can figure out people’s positions, they can trace the trajectory of the bullet, Steele said, by determining two points, where a bullet entered and exited before hitting the ground.

“From that angle, they can retrace the arc that it came from,” Steele said.

But there are some factors that can complicate that process, he said. If the person hit by the bullet collapses, as Hammond police said Noah did, it can be tricky to figure how the person was standing when hit.

Also, when a bullet hits a person, its path can be altered by bones or bodily fluid, making it trickier to figure out the trajectory of the bullet before it entered the body, Steele said.

It all happens “very fast,” as a bullet shot straight up is only in the air for a matter of seconds, he said. The odds of getting hit by a falling bullet “are astronomically small,” according to Steele.

The radius of where the bullet came from varies, depending on the angle it was shot and the type of firearm used, as well as other factors such as weather and air resistance, Steele said.

“Most of the cases I’m aware of, the shot was within a mile,” Steele said. “But if you even think of, let’s say a mile radius, around here, how many people is that?”

Police might not be able to pinpoint a specific spot, but a trajectory will give them a radius to search, canvassing the neighborhood to find the gun, shooter and witnesses, he said.

Once a bullet is recovered, police can determine the caliber and look for class characteristics, said Kevin Judge, deputy commander of the Lake County Sheriff’s Department Crime Scene Investigations Unit.

In the barrel of a firearm, there are grooves, designed by the manufacturer, that grip the side of a bullet to make it spin when it leaves the gun, leaving unique markings, Judge said.

“It can help you narrow down what type or brand of gun you are looking for,” Judge said.

A couple of decades ago, a .38 caliber bullet with marks that twisted left tended to be from a Colt firearm, but marks that twisted right were more characteristic of a Smith & Wesson, Judge said.

Over the years, manufacturers have made their grooves more similar as they’ve found what makes a bullet more accurate, so markings may not be as definitive anymore, Judge said.

“The sad truth is these shootings usually occur with the most common guns out there,” Steele said.

But forensics experts, like Judge, can test fire a recovered gun to compare test bullets to one recovered from a scene, Judge said.

“You’re able to to determine if it was fired from the same firearm or not,” Judge said.

In a case like Noah’s, which involves the death of a child on a holiday weekend when multiple people probably fired guns, it could be harder to get people to come forward, Steele said.

“It’s kind of a daunting task for police to zero in on a person,” Steele said.

But Steele and Judge noted that officers can get results when they use these processes, which often require lengthy training and experience working in the field.

Kellogg said earlier this week that he is “pretty confident in the next couple of weeks we should have more information.”

Police ask anyone with information to call Detective Lt. Mark Tharp at 219-852-2988 or Detective Sgt. Mark Ferry at 219-852-2991.

As police continue to investigate, funeral services are scheduled for Friday in Hammond through LaHayne Funeral Home. Noah, a White Sox and Bears fan, was “loved unconditionally by his family and will be dearly missed,” his obituary said.

Community members have organized fundraisers to help his family. The Domino’s at 7444 Kennedy Ave., Hammond, is donating 25 percent of the money from pizza orders July 21. Monday, Five Guys, 8231 Calumet Ave., Munster, will donate 20 percent of fundraiser sales and an additional dollar from every milkshake to the family. Both were confirmed by the stores’ managers.

rejacobs@post-trib.comTwitter @ruthyjacobs