NORTH ANDOVER — Days before Officer Kelsey Fitzsimmons was shot and wounded by a fellow North Andover police officer during the service of a restraining order, her fiancé wrote in court filings that he feared she would harm their infant child.
“Kelsey is threatening to take the baby ‘far, far away for a long, long time.’ This is how she has spoken about killing herself in the past. I fear that she will kill the baby at any moment,” he wrote in the application, filed in Essex County Probate and Family Court. “She punched her stomach repeatedly while pregnant, saying she would kill herself and the baby.”
The fiancé also alleged that Fitzsimmons struck him with a closed fist during a trip to Maine last week, saying it made him fear for his life and prompted him to leave and stay in a hotel. He said friends of hers contacted police in Bethel, Maine, as well as in Methuen and North Andover. At one point, Fitzsimmons’ parents allegedly took the baby from him “in the middle of the night, saying they didn’t care what ‘manic’ state she was in.”
“I fear if she does not have me she will kill the baby because she has said nothing besides me is worth living for,” he wrote in the restraining order application.
Fitzsimmons, 28, joined the North Andover Police Department in May 2024. She was on administrative leave Monday, July 1, when three fellow officers arrived at her home on Phillips Brooks Road to serve the restraining order. During the encounter, an “armed conflict” occurred, and a veteran officer fired a single shot, striking Fitzsimmons, according to Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker.
She was flown to a Boston-area hospital, where she remained in stable condition as of Tuesday.
Authorities have not confirmed whether Fitzsimmons was armed at the time of the confrontation. The restraining order required her to surrender any firearms in her possession. She had previously been denied a Firearms Identification Card earlier this year and filed a petition to have it reinstated, but withdrew it days before the incident, according to court records in Lawrence District Court.
The Boston Globe reported that Fitzsimmons was involuntarily committed to Lowell General Hospital for 12 hours in March for treatment of postpartum depression. She surrendered both her department-issued firearm and at least one privately owned gun. She was under the care of a therapist and psychiatrist and was cleared to return to duty on June 18, the Globe reported.
The restraining order remains in effect until at least July 14. No criminal charges have been filed.
The shooting remains under investigation by the Essex County District Attorney’s Office.
