NORTH ANDOVER — The off-duty officer shot by North Andover police threatened to harm herself and others a few days prior to the incident, according to court documents.
Kelsey Fitzsimmons, 28, was shot by local police inside her 125 Phillips Brooks Road home Monday following an armed confrontation with colleagues who were serving her a court-approved restraining order.
Fitzsimmons was on administrative leave from the department at the time of the shooting. Her firearms license was recently reinstated after it was suspended in March following a mental-health hospitalization at Lawrence General Hospital.
Court documents detail the restraining order, an abuse prevention order, served to Fitzsimmons. The order states that she is a police officer with a license to carry firearms and could become reactive when served with the order. It also demanded that she surrender any firearms, gun licenses, firearms identification cards, or ammunition to the North Andover Police Department or officers who were serving the order.
The order was issued to the North Andover Police Department at 4:31 p.m. Monday. About 6 p.m., three North Andover police officers went to Fitzsimmons’ North Andover home to serve her with it.
The armed confrontation took place when one of the officers was escorting her at the home. A responding officer struck her with one gunshot. Medical care was immediately administered and she was flown to a Boston hospital. As of Tuesday, authorities said Fitzsimmons was in stable condition. On Thursday, officials declined to provide an update.
North Andover firefighter Justin Aylaian, the man with whom Fitzsimmons had a child in February, filed the restraining order, along with a complaint for protection from abuse in Essex Probate and Family Court on Monday.
In the complaint and its accompanying affidavit, Aylaian said Fitzsimmons physically abused him Saturday by striking him three times in the face with a closed fist. He said the physical abuse toward him left him in fear of his life and in fear of serious physical harm toward him and his baby that potentially could be inflicted by Fitzsimmons.
In the complaint, he claims a pattern of concerning behavior on the part of Fitzsimmons, and he seeks full custody of the couple’s 4-month-old child.
He also reported that Fitzsimmons was a danger to him, the child and herself. He alleged ongoing safety concerns persisted during her pregnancy and after giving birth, concerns raised by incidents in which she was physically abusive to him and herself.
Aylaian said he left the place where the couple was staying during the weekend after she hit him. He moved to a hotel with a friend for the night. Aylaian reported his siblings heard noises when Fitzsimmons struck him and came knocking on their door.
After Aylaian left, family and friends reported Fitzsimmons was combative. The friends are said to have called police in Bethel, Maine, and Methuen and North Andover police because they feared Fitzsimmons may have tried to escalate the situation.
The affidavit details Fitzsimmons saying Monday that she planned to take the baby ‘”far far away for a long long time.” Aylaian said this is how she talked about taking her own life in the past.
“I fear that she will kill the baby at any moment,” the affidavit reads.
It also references Fitzsimmons being held under Section 12, an involuntary mental-health stay while she was at Lawrence General Hospital in March.
Following Monday night’s shooting, court documents also show the father filed for sole custody of the couple’s baby in Essex Probate and Family Court on Tuesday.
Aylaian lived with Fitzsimmons after the birth of their child until Monday, according to court documents.
His custody complaint requests the court prohibit Fitzsimmons from imposing any restraint on the personal liberty of him or the child. A domestic relations summons was also issued to Fitzsimmons.
Fitzsimmons remains on administrative leave from North Andover Police Department.