LAWRENCE — The North Andover officers who served Kelsey Fitzsimmons with a restraining order last June detailed the shooting incident during the second day of their colleague’s assault trial in Essex County Superior Court on Tuesday.
Fitzsimmons, 29, is charged with one count of assault by means of a dangerous weapon, stemming from the June 30 shooting. Police said an officer shot her after she pulled her gun on one of them. Fitzsimmons claims she aimed the gun at her head in a failed suicide attempt.
Officer Patrick Noonan testified that four seconds, maybe only three, had elapsed from the time he first pulled the trigger, missing Fitzsimmons on the first shot before striking her in the chest with his second.
“She tried to kill me,” Noonan reiterated as defense lawyer Timothy Bradl cross-examined him during the morning session as the officer’s testimony continued from the previous day. When asked if he feared for his life, he answered “absolutely.”
“We use deadly force with deadly force,” Noonan said. “I stopped when she stopped.”
The North Andover officer detailed his recollection of the incident in which he commanded Fitzsimmons to “Don’t do it” while shooting at her.
“It’s hard to shoot a moving target, or anything moving,” Noonan responded when asked why he missed her the first time.
He said everything happened within seconds in her bedroom.
Noonan, who is on critical incident leave from the Police Department, stood up from the witness stand, emulating the stance Fitzsimmons took when holding the gun with her strong side, and her other hand for support on the top of the gun.
The officer testified how he was in complete shock after she pointed the gun and it didn’t go off, stating he believed her hand slipped. He was unsure if she had successfully racked the gun.
Bradl questioned Noonan’s description of the incident because he testified the previous day he fired twice in rapid succession, but was now saying he shot once, gave commands and then shot again.
“I was giving commands and shooting at the same time,” Noonan said.
He also testified that he didn’t know Fitzsimmons’ estranged fiancé Justin Aylaian was coming to the house, didn’t see him when he arrived and wasn’t aware that he was walking around. But at the end of his testimony, Noonan commented that in hindsight, he believes Fitzsimmons was trying to get downstairs to kill Aylaian.
Bradl also questioned why the officer’s first shot missed her with his background in SWAT training, the military and as a field training officer. Noonan responded that Fitzsimmons was 15 feet away from him in the bedroom.
He said there was an older woman “causing a scene” with North Andover police Lt. Sean Daley downstairs and he was left alone escorting Fitzsimmons on the upstairs landing between bedrooms.
Noonan testified that he didn’t know Fitzsimmons well because she worked a different shift and was on maternity leave for a period of time when he came back to work for the North Andover Police Department.
“I didn’t have a chance to get to know her,” he said, recalling responding to one or two calls with Fitzsimmons.
Bradl then showed him text messages he sent Fitzsimmons after a traumatic call in August 2024 involving a murder and suicide of a mother and infant. The text messages, which Noonan confirmed were sent from his phone when shown, relayed to Fitzsimmons about seeking help for past events in his career that sent him down a dark place and had a guy to call for “tune ups.”
“It was horrific,” he said. “I was a senior officer trying to help a rookie with a traumatic event.”
On June 30, Noonan met officer Timothy Houston at the Anne Bradstreet Early Childhood Center’s parking lot, which is adjacent to Fitzsimmons’ house at 125 Phillips Brooks Road. Noonan noted how he thought it was suspicious her car was parked in the school’s lot about 150 yards from her driveway that evening.
“I don’t know what her mindset was,” he said. “I was just suspicious about that.”
When the two men met up, Noonan testified in a statement to the state police following the shooting, it was “spoken if she reacts badly, she may have to be sectioned.” Her previous mental health hospitalization factored into how he assessed the call and never took his eyes off her.
Bradl questioned Noonan on a conversation he had with a neighbor after the shooting where he allegedly called Fitzsimmons a “whack job.”
“I don’t recall…but it’s possible,” Noonan said. When pressed further on the issue, he responded, “She tried to kill me.”
Houston, who was one of the three serving a restraining order on June 30, also testified and suggested knowing Fitzsimmons on a more personal level where he was invited to her wedding and had kept in touch with her while she was on leave.
He recalled how he was asked to drive past Fitzsimmons’ house that day before serving the restraining order and saw her car in the school’s parking lot.
Houston then called Daley and mentioned where he saw the car. He then called Noonan and told him to meet in the school’s parking lot. The three men discussed what was going on and concerns.
“We were aware she had been sectioned before,” Houston said, adding they were concerned she may not react well to the restraining order and didn’t know what would happen.
Houston had never been in Fitzsimmons’ home before. When inside, he said he held her child at Fitzsimmons’ request.
“‘Why don’t you take him for a walk. He likes to look at the cars,’” Houston recalled Fitzsimmons telling him, but he took the baby on the porch instead.
Houston also testified remembering Fitzsimmons’ shock when Daley explained the court order to her.
Houston observed clothes everywhere and an empty handgun case on the main floor, but Fitzsimmons told the officers the guns were in the basement.
Houston testified that as he followed Fitzsimmons’ around her house, he was “still a little bit on edge” and he was concerned about knives in the kitchen that could be used as weapons.
“I didn’t want her to reach for a knife,” he said. “Nothing against her, just a lot of information to take in.”
After they gathered some items in the kitchen, he followed her to the nursery upstairs with Noonan.
Houston testified that he found another empty gun case upstairs, to which he said Fitzsimmons responded, “‘I already told you it was in the basement.’”
Aylaian eventually arrived and Fitzsimmons told Houston she didn’t want him in the house. Houston went downstairs and was told Aylaian was in the basement getting items.
At the top of the basement stairs, Houston testified he heard Noonan yell Fitzsimmons’ name, and then two gunshots “pretty quick.”
Houston said he ran upstairs and was told Fitzsimmons pulled out a gun. Daley was evaluating her on the floor and she was alert and breathing.
“‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,’” Houston testified that Fitzsimmons said.
The trial is scheduled to resume Wednesday.