NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — A North Andover police officer accused of pointing her gun at another officer during an incident at her home that ended with her being shot appeared in court from her hospital bed for a bail hearing on Thursday.
[ Kelsey Fitzsimmons worked her way up to police officer. One night in June, that all changed ]
Kelsey Fitzsimmons, 28, pleaded not guilty to charges of armed assault with intent to murder and two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon during a virtual arraignment last week. A judge ordered her held without bail on the grounds of dangerousness.
Prosecutors say police shot Fitzsimmons after she allegedly pulled a gun on them during the serving of a restraining order in June.
Fitzsimmons’ legal team has denied the allegation that she pulled a gun on officers. During Thursday’s bail review hearing, the defense proposed that she be released on bail with specific conditions, including undergoing counseling and residing with her mother.
That judge will now review case documents before deciding on Fitzsimmons’ bail status.
Fitzsimmons was shot by police once in the chest in the incident on Phillips Brooks Road around 6 p.m. on June 30, according to Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker and her attorney.
Three officers were carrying out a court-ordered restraining order at Fitzsimmons’ home when the shooting happened, according to Tucker and North Andover police. Fitzsimmons was the subject of the restraining order.
“When one of the officers was escorting Ms. Fitzsimmons during the service of the court order, an armed confrontation took place,” Tucker said after the shooting. “One of the standard boxes to check is the retrieval of any firearms in the home.”
The order, obtained by Fitzsimmons’ fiancée and the father of their four-month-old baby, came “by surprise” in an ex-parte fashion, seeking to take the child away from her,” her attorney, Tim Bradl, said last month.
“I am in trouble and have a gunshot wound to my chest because in that awful, isolated moment, I no longer had the will to live,” Fitzsimmons said in her first public comment on the incident, adding that she was diagnosed with postpartum depression soon after giving birth to her son in February.
She began work as a full-time officer at the North Andover Police Department in November 2023, according to her LinkedIn page.
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