NORTH ANDOVER — The attorney for a North Andover police officer who was on administrative leave and shot in her home when colleagues arrived to serve her with a restraining order June 30 has released a statement from the victim, Kelsey Fitzsimmons, written from her hospital bed after having what she says were two “significant” surgeries.
In her first public statement, Fitzsimmons, 28, described a much different version of events from what has been reported by others involved in the situation. Fitzsimmons claimed she tried to kill herself and was shot in the chest by a fellow officer when she pointed a gun at her head.
“My firearm was never pointed in any direction other than my temple,” Fitzsimmons said in the statement released by Timothy Bradl, her attorney.
“When I pulled the trigger, my gun did not fire. However, I immediately got shot in the chest, by my colleague and friend.”
Three North Andover police officers went to her home at 125 Phillips Brooks Road that Monday evening. An officer fired at Fitzsimmons after an armed confrontation took place when the restraining order was served to her. After medical assistance was administered, Fitzsimmons was flown to a Boston hospital, according to authorities.
Fitzsimmons was on leave at the time of the shooting. Her firearms license had been recently reinstated following its suspension in March after she was held on a Section 12 order for mental health issues at Lawrence General Hospital.
In the lengthy statement, Fitzsimmons tells one side of what transpired before and during the shooting that led to her hospitalization. Her statement also describes how the rookie officer’s response, while 20 weeks pregnant, to a murder-suicide in August when a North Andover mother stabbed her 9-month-old infant and then herself was a catalyst for “mental health complications.”
“She is in great spirits now that she is getting her voice out there,” Bradl told The Eagle-Tribune on Thursday afternoon.
Bradl said while she recovers from what he described as life-threatening injuries, she chose to speak out to clarify a narrative surrounding the incident.
In the statement, Fitzsimmons said she faces felony charges “for a half-hearted attempt to take my own life.” She was charged with a count of armed assault with intent to murder and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, an Essex County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson confirmed July 10.
When North Andover police arrived at her home June 30, Fitzsimmons said she had been there for an hour after her fiancé asked her to go for a walk with her and their child. She said she waited for three hours in the park after receiving his phone call for the meetup before she headed home.
Fitzsimmons and North Andover firefighter Justin Aylaian gave birth to their child in February.
Fitzsimmons said she was on the couch at her home feeding the child when three of her colleagues knocked on the door.
Fitzsimmons said she was told she was being served with a restraining order filed by her fiancé, who would take custody of their son with no contact. She was also told her firearms license “which was just returned is gone again,” according to Fitzsimmons.
She packed a bag with items for the child, handed him to one of the officers and then went into her bedroom, Fitzsimmons said.
“In that horrible moment, I didn’t want to live after my whole world was turned upside down, in the matter of a 10 second conversation due to someone alleging horrible, untrue things,” Fitzsimmons said in the statement.
She said she tried to kill herself because she “no longer had the will to live.” The officer who shot her was someone who became a friend and support system after the two responded to the murder-suicide last year, Fitzsimmons said.
“As a ‘rookie’ police officer, this was devastating to me,” she said of the murder-suicide call. “The officer that shot me experienced this call with me. To this day, his support during that hard time is something I am still grateful for, regardless of this recent incident that occurred.”
In the statement, Fitzsimmons acknowledged her postpartum depression diagnosis three weeks after giving birth. She said she was actively seeking treatment and “immediately sought help from medical professionals.”
In May, she filed an appeal of police Chief Charles Gray’s decision to suspend her gun permit after she argued it was revoked due to her hospitalization in March.
In the May 6 petition, Fitzsimmons was upfront about her mental health struggles during her maternity leave. She voluntarily contacted North Andover police to turn over her personal and department-issued guns after the 12-hour, mental health hospital stay, according to court documents.
Fitzsimmons’ petition details how she was diagnosed with postpartum depression and sought follow-up care that included seeing a therapist and psychiatrist. She would welcome a fitness-for-duty evaluation to return to work, according to the petition.
“Unfortunately, healing a sickness does not happen overnight,” Fitzsimmons said in her statement.
Becoming a mother was always her dream and she never made any threats toward her child, she said.
“That allegation specifically makes me sick to my stomach,” she said.
In the accompanying affidavit to the restraining order, Aylaian alleged Fitzsimmons was a danger to herself, him and their 4-month-old and threatened harm to kill the baby and herself.
In the statement, Fitzsimmons also called for reform in the court system and claims she would not be wrongfully accused if North Andover police officers wore body cameras.