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This article addresses the sensitive topic of suicide. If you or someone you know is in distress, please reach out to the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
In a Massachusetts courtroom, a former police officer accused of attempting to murder a colleague has taken the stand, asserting that she never intended any harm toward her fellow officer.
Kelsey Fitzsimmons, who served as a police officer in North Andover at the time of the incident, firmly denied charges of attempting to kill her colleague. During her testimony, she claimed that her actions were a bid to take her own life as officers arrived to deliver a restraining order filed by her fiancé, Justin Aylaian.
Her defense lawyer, Timothy Bradl, sought clarification by asking if she had pointed the gun’s muzzle toward Officer Patrick Noonan.
“No, never,” Fitzsimmons responded emphatically during her testimony.
Kelsey Fitzsimmons, a former North Andover police officer, testified Wednesday that she never pointed her gun at Officer Patrick Noonan. (POOL)
Fitzsimmons was shot by a fellow officer after she allegedly pointed a gun at him and attempted to fire it on June 25, 2025. The 28-year-old was arrested and arraigned on one count of armed assault with intent to murder and two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon.
She was indicted in Essex Superior Court later that month, and the charges were presented to a grand jury. The grand jury chose to charge her with just one count of assault with a dangerous weapon. Fitzsimmons is now facing a bench trial.
Prosecutors allege that she tried to shoot Patrick Noonan as he was serving her a restraining order from her fiancé. Fitzsimmons disputes this version of events, maintaining that she was pointing the gun at herself in a suicide attempt and didn’t want to reach out to the community of officers at her station.
“I didn’t want to involve anybody. I wanted to take my own life,” she said. “I never pointed the gun at a fellow police officer. It never happened.”
Kelsey Fitzsimmons, 28, was shot during a confrontation with her fellow officers. (North Andover Police Department)
While testifying Wednesday, Fitzsimmons recounted the moment that she was shot.
“I went into like a huge adrenaline shock. It didn’t feel like normal pain, it almost felt like absent pain, but it felt like my entire body was burning, and I was completely alert, completely awake the whole time,” Fitzsimmons said.
“I was speaking as much as I could. My lung was punctured, so that’s why I was having trouble breathing, but other than that, I was very alert and aware of my surroundings.”
Later, the former officer shared that as the fire department and additional resources arrived at her home and took her to the hospital that she repeatedly said that she “wanted to die.”
“They brought me outside, and I think when I was still in my house one of the firefighters was trying to put oxygen on my face, and I was taking it off and just saying, ‘I want to die, I want to die, I want to die.’”
Kelsey Fitzsimmons is seen in images from the North Andover Police Department. (North Andover Police Department. )
Fitzsimmons has pleaded not guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with the June 2025 incident.
Prosecutors rested their case Wednesday.
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