Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
Testimony of officer who shot Kelsey Fitzsimmons continues on day 2 of trial
Fitzsimmons was shot by a colleague last year. She is charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. A bench trial is ongoing.
The trial of Kelsey Fitzsimmons continued Tuesday in Essex County Superior Court.
Fitzsimmons, a former North Andover police officer, stands accused of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. She was shot by a colleague, officer Patrick Noonan, on June 30, 2025 in her home. The shooting occurred as officers attempted to serve her a restraining order that had been granted to Justin Aylaian, Fitzsimmon’s then-fiancé and the father of her child.
Catch up on all the details of the case here.
The trial began Monday, with opening statements and testimony from multiple witnesses. Judge Jeffrey Karp is overseeing a bench trial, which is scheduled to continue Wednesday.
Advertisement:
Karp agreed to conduct a visit at the North Andover home where the shooting occurred later this week. Both prosecutors and defense attorneys will walk through the home, which is no longer owned by Fitzsimmons, with Karp.
Witness: Patrick Noonan
Much of the court proceedings Tuesday centered around Noonan’s continued testimony. Under cross-examination by Fitzsimmons’s attorney, Timothy Bradl, Noonan said he was not aware that Aylaian was coming to the house on June 30, and did not see him there. While upstairs with Fitzsimmons, he did not step down the stairs or leave her alone at all, he said in court.
Advertisement:
Bradl asked Noonan about his relationship with Fitzsimmons. Noonan said that he had only worked a shift or two with her and did not have the opportunity to form an opinion about her. Bradl asked Noonan about a neighbor of his, to whom he purportedly described Fitzsimmons as a “whackjob.”
Noonan said he could not recall such a conversation, but said it was possible that the conversation occurred. Bradl asked Noonan if that is what he really thinks about Fitzsimmons, to which Noonan replied: “after she tried to kill me.”
Noonan told Bradl about how Fitzsimmons decided, on her own, to hand him her child on the day of the shooting. He was also handed a bottle, but quickly handed the baby off to another officer, he testified.
Bradl pressed Noonan about how quickly the two shots were fired at Fitzsimmons. Noonan said they were fired in rapid succession, to which Bradl responded by referring to comments Noonan previously made to State Police investigators. Noonan told State Police that he fired once, gave Fitzsimmons commands to stop, then fired again. Both of these statements cannot be true at once, Bradl argued, but Noonan said that they could be true at the same time and that they are not separate assertions.
Advertisement:
Bradl questioned Noonan about the distance between him and Fitzsimmons at the time of the shooting, asking why Noonan could not have simply grabbed her. Noonan said he was in “complete shock” after she pulled out a gun and could not have grabbed her.
Noonan said that, in hindsight, he assumes Fitzsimmons intended to go downstairs and kill Aylaian after shooting him. This prompted a shocked look from Fitzsimmons to her legal team.
Noonan said that he had a taser with him at the time of the shooting, but that his training dictates that an officer should meet deadly force with deadly force.
Bradl hoped to ask Noonan about three specific topics: whether he was drug tested after the shooting in accordance with town policy, whether Noonan missed a shift sometime after the shooting, and whether Noonan was allowed to work details for the NAPD while he was on administrative leave.
Whistleblowers had come to Bradl’s legal team with these concerns, he said. He said they could be indications Noonan received rewards from NAPD leaders for testifying. Karp allowed one question, or a short line of questioning, about each of these topics.
Noonan confirmed that he was not drug tested after the shooting and that he does not know details of specific town policies and whether or not he should have been. Noonan confirmed that he was able to work details while on critical incident leave. He was absent from work without proper permissions for a shift in January and a reprimand letter was issued to him, he said. Noonan said that he did not know if that reprimand letter was originally not going to be issued against him, as Bradl implied. Karp prevented further questioning about these topics.
Advertisement:
Noonan was asked if he ever told Fitzsimmons that he had post-traumatic stress disorder. He denied ever saying this. Later, he confirmed that he responded to the scene of a “horrific” murder-suicide with Fitzsimmons and other officers well before the shooting. Bradl read text messages Noonan sent to Fitzsimmons after that, where Noonan mentioned past mental health struggles and gave advice about seeking professional help.
“I was being a senior officer trying to help out a rookie go through a traumatic event,” Noonan said.
Bradl brought up other past comments Noonan made to investigators. Noonan previously told them that Fitzsimmons, after being shot, reached out to grab his hand. He asked her “why?” to which she only responded with a “death stare.” Noonan said in court Tuesday that he did not remember making those comments to investigators, but did not debate that he could have said those things.
Other witnesses
Officer Steven Corr briefly testified. He spoke about being nearby at the time of the shooting and responding quickly to Fitzsimmons’s home with a medical kit. He confirmed that Noonan asked him to secure the gun used by Fitzsimmons, and that he found a round in the chamber of that weapon.
Detective Lieutenant Michael Bonasoro of the State Police’s firearms identification unit testified next. He responded to the scene of the shooting and said that he recovered two discharged cartridge casings and one spent projectile. Bonasoro said that he determined Noonan’s gun was the one that discharged the two bullets.
Advertisement:
Bonasoro found no malfunctions in Fitzsimmons’s gun, he testified. He brought that weapon with him and gave a demonstration of how a “click” would be heard when the trigger is pulled without a round in the chamber.
Bonasoro took Noonan’s gun and officer Timothy Houston’s gun after the shooting as well. Bradl pointed out places in evidence documents where Bonasoro omitted some information about which gun each bullet came from. Bonasoro did not deny this and said they were omitted by mistake.
Houston testified after Bonasoro. He spoke about being invited to Fitzsimmons’s wedding and keeping in touch with her while she was out on maternity leave. He was involved in some efforts to gather NAPD officers in a social setting with Fitzsimmons, but this gathering never took place, he said.
Houston spoke about meeting with Noonan and Lieutenant Sean Daley before they went to Fitzsimmons’s house. Houston knew that she had been “sectioned” before and that there was the possibility she would react negatively to being served the restraining order, he said.
Houston said Noonan handed him Fitzsimmons’s son. Fitzsimmons told Houston that the baby liked to look at cars and asked him to take the baby for a walk, Houston said. Houston declined to do so and eventually handed off the child to Fitzsimmons’s mother.
Houston walked through the minutes before the shooting, where he heard Aylaian come into the house while upstairs with Fitzsimmons and Noonan. Houston knew that any interaction between Fitzsimmons and Aylaian could escalate tensions, so he went downstairs to try to prevent this from happening, he testified.
Advertisement:
The final witness of the day was Michelle Mitchell, a correctional officer and a former coworker of Fitzsimmons. The two were friends, and Mitchell was asked to be a bridesmaid at Fitzsimmons’s wedding.
Mitchell recalled having a phone conversation with Fitzsimmons on the day of the shooting. Fitzsimmons was crying, driving around North Andover, saying that she “needed Justin,” Mitchell testified.
On the afternoon of June 30, Mitchell was at a friend of Aylaian’s house with him and others where the decision was made for Aylaian to file for a restraining order. Mitchell said that she saw Fitzsimmons drive by the house while they were gathered there.
Fitzsimmons’s trial is expected to continue on Wednesday.
Be civil. Be kind.
Read our full community guidelines.To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address