LAWRENCE, MASS. (WHDH) - Opening statements were delivered Monday in the trial for a North Andover police officer who was shot by a fellow officer last year.
Kelsey Fitzsimmons is a North Andover police officer who was off-duty when she was shot by a fellow officer at her home on Phillips Brook Road in July 2025. She is accused of pointing a gun at that officer while he was trying to serve her a restraining order from her fiancé.
Fitzsimmons was on leave at the time, and her attorney argues she was suffering from postpartum depression. She is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, and has pleaded not guilty.
In her final pre-trial hearing last week, Fitzsimmons waived her right to a jury trial, opting for a judge to decide her fate in a bench trial.
In opening statements, prosecutors said Fitzsimmons pointed her service revolver at Officer Patrick Noonan and fired, but there was no bullet in the chamber. Prosecutors said she then re-racked and pointed the gun again, even as Noonan yelled “don’t do it,” multiple times.
“The defendant raised her gun, leveled it at Pat Noonan’s face, then pulled the trigger,” Prosecutor James Gubitose said in court. “As she’s picking up the gun, raising the gun, Officer Noonan fires. He fires twice. She is now moving, he misses, and then strikes her.”
The defense argues this is instead the story of a distraught woman upset that she was losing custody of her toddler, and was intending to take her own life.
“The evidence here, judge, will show that he was trying to tell her not to kill herself. The evidence will show that Kelsey never pointed a gun at him, and this was a mistake,” said Tim Bradl, Fitzsimmons’ Defense Attorney. “She will tell you, with some indignation I suspect, that she would never point a firearm at a fellow law enforcement officer.”
Noonan was called to the witness stand, and methodically described the moment he opened fire.
“I was yelling, ‘don’t do it, don’t do it,'” Noonan said. “After she successfully got a round in the chamber, her right arm started to come up and I shot twice in rapid succession.”
Noonan will return to the stand Tuesday morning for cross examination. It is still unclear if Fitzsimmons will take the stand in her own defense.
She is currently suspended from her position as a police officer.
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