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Fiancé of wounded North Andover officer feared she would kill their baby, records show
"I fear that she will kill the baby at any moment," Kelsey Fitzsimmons' fiancé wrote in an application for a restraining order.
Earlier this week, an off-duty North Andover police officer was shot and wounded in a confrontation with some of her colleagues as they attempted to serve a restraining order.
Now, new details are emerging about how the officer’s fiancé said he feared for his life and the life of their child before the incident.
Kelsey Fitzsimmons, the wounded officer, was the subject of the restraining order. When her fiancé applied for the order last week, he wrote in court documents that Fitzsimmons was a danger to herself, him, and their young child.
“Kelsey is threatening to take the baby ‘far, far away for a long, long time.’ This is how she has spoken about killing herself in the past. I fear that she will kill the baby at any moment,” he wrote in the application, which was filed in Essex County Probate and Family Court. “She punched her stomach repeatedly while pregnant, saying she would kill herself and the baby.”
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Fitzsimmons, 28, has been with the North Andover Police Department since last spring. She was on administrative leave Monday when three other NAPD officers arrived at her home on Phillips Brooks Road to serve the restraining order.
As one of the on-duty officers was “escorting” her, an “armed conflict” broke out, Essex District Attorney Paul Tucker said earlier this week. One of the officers fired their weapon, striking Fitzsimmons. She was flown to a Boston-area hospital and was in stable condition as of Tuesday morning.
In his application for the restraining order, Fitzsimmons’ fiancé noted that she is an officer with a license to carry. He “expressed concerns regarding [Fitzsimmons] reaction to be served.”
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He described how Fitzsimmons struck him with a closed fist while they were in Maine last week. He feared for his life, he said, and left to stay in a hotel. Friends of hers contacted police in Bethel, Maine as well as in Methuen and North Andover. At one point, Fitzsimmons’ parents took the baby from her fiancé “in the middle of the night, saying they didn’t care what ‘manic’ state she was in.”
“I fear if she does not have me she will kill the baby because she has said nothing besides me is worth living for,” he wrote.
Authorities have not said whether Fitzsimmons was armed at the time of the confrontation with the other officers. She was ordered to surrender any weapons to authorities in the restraining order.
Fitzsimmons was denied her Firearms Identification Card earlier this year, according to records in Lawrence District Court. She sought relief in an apparent attempt to have her card reinstated, but she withdrew that petition last week.
Records obtained by The Boston Globe show that she was involuntarily committed to Lowell General Hospital for 12 hours in March to be treated for postpartum depression. She surrendered her department-issued firearm and at least one privately owned weapon.
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She had met with a therapist and was also being seen by a psychiatrist. She was cleared to return to work on June 18, according to the Globe. It is unclear if her weapons were returned to her.
The restraining order against Fitzsimmons is in effect until at least July 14.
Tucker’s office is leading an ongoing investigation into the shooting. Authorities have not announced any criminal charges against Fitzsimmons.
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