North Andover officer addresses her shooting in first statement

Local News

Kelsey Fitzsimmons says that she struggled with postpartum depression but never threatened her son. She was shot by a colleague while trying to take her own life, according to a lengthy statement.

Kelsey Fitzsimmons, the North Andover police officer who was recently shot by a colleague as they attempted to serve her a restraining order, released a lengthy statement Thursday detailing her perspective on the incident and her struggles with postpartum depression.

Fitzsimmons faces one charge of assault to murder and two charges of assault with a deadly weapon, according to court documents. She was suspended by the state’s police watchdog earlier this week.

While her lawyer has made public statements condemning the media coverage surrounding the incident and blaming North Andover police for its “botched response,” the statement released Thursday is Fitzsimmons’s first time addressing the public directly after being shot in the chest.

Fitzsimmons recalls feeding her baby on the evening of June 30 when three colleagues knocked on her door. She was told that her fiancé had filed the restraining order, that her son would be taken away, and that her career as a police officer would be over as well, according to the statement. 

“In that horrible moment, I didn’t want to live after my whole world was turned upside down, in the matter of a 10 second conversation due to someone alleging horrible, untrue things,” she wrote. 

Fitzsimmons maintains that she never pointed her firearm at the other officers. 

“I am facing felony charges for a halfhearted attempt to take my own life,” she wrote. 

She describes how the colleague that shot her is a close friend, and how the two bonded over their shared trauma working on a murder-suicide case involving a mother and an infant last year. This, Fitzsimmons said, was the catalyst that sparked her mental health issues. 

“I especially would never hurt my friend,” she wrote. “When I pulled the trigger, my gun did not fire. However, I immediately got shot in chest, by my colleague and friend.”

In the statement, Fitzsimmons criticizes the North Andover Police Department for releasing a “vague and noncommittal” narrative. 

She also calls on state lawmakers and Gov. Maura Healey to fix an “abomination of a statute where the first person to get to Court and fill out a form can take a mother’s newborn away from her if they can sneak in front of a judge without the mother’s notice or opportunity to be heard.”

Fitzsimmons is adamant that she never made any threats toward her son, despite allegations contained in an affidavit filed by her fiancé when he applied for the restraining order. 

“I am extremely grateful for two things: that God protected me from my attempt of taking my own life, and protected me by millimeters from dying from that gunshot wound to my chest. I will survive and thrive. I know I need to be on this earth for many reasons, but most importantly- my beautiful son,” she wrote. 

Read the full statement below:

Fitzsimmons Statement by Ross Cristantiello on Scribd