A Massachusetts cop who squared off with a fellow officer he’d just served a restraining order to recalled the heart-stopping moment the despondent new mom allegedly pulled a gun on him and squeezed the trigger — with the gun thankfully jamming.
North Andover Officer Patrick Noonan said he watched in horror as Kelsey Fitzsimmons allegedly “tap racked” the gun twice until it unjammed during the showdown at her home, prompting him to open fire.
“I was yelling, ‘Don’t do it! Don’t do it!’ She successfully got a round in the chamber,” Noonan testified Monday on the first day of Noonan’s assault trial. “I shot twice in rapid succession. I saw her flinch. The gun went down. And then she went to the ground.”
Noonan and two other officers had just served the 28-year-old new mom a surprise restraining order from her fiancé, who told cops he feared she would kill their 4-month-old son “at any moment.”
But as the cops went to help take the son away, Fitzsimmons allegedly pulled out her service weapon, sparking the chaotic scene that left her with a gunshot to the chest.
Fitzsimmons’ fiancé, Justin Aylaian, and his sister, Courtney Aylaian, both testified they heard Noonan yelling and then gunshots ringing out — sending both running from the North Andover home with the tot.
“I heard an officer’s command, scream out, ‘Stop! Don’t do it!” Justin testified in a Lawrence, Mass. courtroom — as his ex, wearing a pink sweater and her long hair in waves, looked on. “I heard several gunshots ring out. And I heard Kelsey’s mother screaming.”
“I ran through door, screaming for my sister to run,” Justin recounted.
Justin said he decided to move out that weekend because of Fitzsimmons’ concerning behavior — and after getting temporary custody of their son, Caden.
Courtney testified that after hearing the yelling and gunshots, and seeing smoke inside the house, she held the son closer and fled.
“I knew I needed to run,” Courtney said. “I started to back up. I feared [Justin] was not coming out of that house.”
“I put my arms around Caden and I ran,” she said.
Fitzsimmons’ lawyer, Timothy Bradl, claimed to Judge Jeffrey Karp during opening statements that his client didn’t pull a gun on Noonan — but that she was pointing it at her own head.
“Ms. Fitzsimmons’ entire world imploded,” Bradl said. “It was destroyed when her fiancé obtained a restraining order behind her back.”
Bradl said Fitzsimmons “stood in her house in humiliation” in front of her friends and coworkers as it set in that she was losing her son, had lost her husband-to-be and might also lose her job. In that moment, she decided to kill herself, Bradl said.
But Noonan felt “panic” when he saw Fitzsimmons in her bedroom suddenly holding a gun to her head and he fired two times — one shot hitting a fan and the other going through her chest, Bradl said.
“Kelsey, no. Kelsey, no!” Bradl said Noonan yelled beforehand. “You don’t say that when you’re staring at the muzzle of a gun pointed at you. You say that to a person who has a gun to their head.”
“You don’t shoot someone in the chest when they are seeking clearly to only harm themselves. You need to adjust the narrative to save yourself,” the defense lawyer claimed to Karp — who is deciding the trial rather than a jury.
“She never pointed a gun at him and this was mistake,” Bradl claimed. “It was a brain freeze, it was a mechanical thing, someone seeing a gun and shooting.”
Bradl claimed there was no motive for Fitzsimmons to harm anyone but herself — especially since the cops were colleagues and pals, with one even getting an invite to her wedding.
He said she was attempting to get the officers out of her room and downstairs by continuing to hand them items to send away with her son, who had already been taken out of the home — to ensure the officers weren’t harmed when she killed herself, Bradl said.
And the fact her gun was found under her leg after she was shot and knocked onto her back was proof she couldn’t have been aiming it at Noonan, Bradl said.
North Andover Police Lt. Sean Daley, the first witness to testify, said when he rushed upstairs after hearing the gunfire, he found Fitzsimmons wounded on her back, repeating: “I’m sorry and I want to die.”
Meanwhile, prosecutor James Gubitose insisted she was aiming for Noonan but her gun — a service weapon — didn’t go off.
“The defendant raised her gun, leveled it at Pat Noonan’s face and pulled the trigger,” Gubitose said. “There are two reasons why Pat is alive today, the first being that Ms. Fitzsimmons’ gun, while it had a full magazine it, did not have a round in the chamber.”
“Pat Noonan, based on his years and decades, reacted in a calm and professional way when he protected himself and everyone else in that house,” Gubitose said.
Last week, Fitzsimmons opted out of a jury trial, instead choosing a bench trial.
Prosecutors have claimed that Fitzsimmons was suffering from severe postpartum depression which prompted her fiancé to seek the restraining order out of fear for the safety of herself and her son.
“I felt my son’s life was in grave danger and that imminent harm might come to him,” Justin testified Monday, prompting an objection from prosecutors.
Fitzsimmons has pleaded not guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon.
Her trial is expected to wrap by the end of the week.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling.
If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
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