The fiancé of a North Andover police officer who was shot Monday in an armed confrontation with her fellow officers feared she would kill their infant son and take her own life, leading him to obtain a restraining order against her, records show.
“I fear she will kill the baby at any moment,” he wrote of his fiancée, Kelsey E. Fitzsimmons, in the restraining order application. “Kelsey is threatening to take the baby ‘far, far, far away for a long, long time.’ This is how she has spoken about killing herself in the past.”
“She punched her stomach repeatedly while pregnant, saying she would kill herself and the baby,” he added.
A North Andover firefighter, he warned police by “expressing concern regarding [Fitzsimmons] reaction to be served” with the restraining order.
That warning proved prophetic. An Essex County Family and Probate judge issued the order at 4:31 p.m. Monday, records stated. About two hours later, three North Andover officers arrived at her home to deliver the court order.
When they did, Fitzsimmons, 28, engaged in an “armed confrontation” that ended when an officer shot her once in the chest at her North Andover home, authorities said. She was flown to a Boston hospital, where on Tuesday, she was listed as stable.
The firefighter declined to comment and asked not to be contacted again. The Globe is not identifying him because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Fitzsimmons gave birth Feb. 16 to the couple’s son, according to court records. On March 9, she was involuntarily committed for 12 hours for treatment of postpartum depression at Lowell General Hospital, according to court records.
The next day, she surrendered her department-issued pistol and at least one privately owned gun, court records stated.
Given her hospitalization for mental health treatment, her license to carry firearms was suspended, and she was placed on administrative leave by the town on April 30, records show.
In May, Fitzsimmons provided some details on her situation when she asked a judge to reinstate her license to carry a gun, records show.
On March 9, emergency responders went to her home, where she was living with her fiancé and newborn son, after receiving a report that she was “having mental health issues,” her lawyer wrote in court documents.
Fitzsimmons “was diagnosed with postpartum depression,” her attorney wrote. Since being released, she had met with a therapist and was under the care of a psychiatrist, the lawyer wrote.
On June 18, police cleared her to return to work and restored her license to carry, records show. Authorities did not say whether police had returned her weapons to her.
Fitzsimmons was still on administrative leave Monday, according to the town’s police chief, Charles Gray.
In his application for a restraining order, the fiancé described being at a location in Maine with Fitzsimmons, two of his siblings, and mutual friends on June 28.
“Kelsey struck me with a closed fist 3x to the face. I was scared she would not stop,” he wrote. “I feared for my life so I left with a friend to stay at a motel. Family and her closest friends reported that even after I left, she physically hit them to try and get to me.”
While heavily intoxicated, Fitzsimmons left Maine and was intent on getting her child, he wrote. He indicated that the baby was staying with his parents but that Fitzsimmons’ parents came and took custody of the child, saying they didn’t care what “manic state” she was in.
Friends contacted police in Bethel, Maine, Methuen, and North Andover after she left the gathering, he wrote.
“I fear if she doesn’t have me she will kill the baby because she has said she has nothing besides me,” he wrote. ”Fitzsimmons is a danger to myself, her son and herself."
The restraining order required Fitzsimmons to surrender any weapons she had and stay away from the North Andover Fire Department and his current home.
The order is in effect until at least July 14, records stated.
Separately, since the couple is not married, the fiancé has asked the court to award him full legal and physical custody of his son, court records stated. That request appears to be pending.
Fitzsimmons joined the North Andover department in May 2024. She had previously worked for the Essex County Sheriff’s Department and graduated from Fisher College in 2020, according to town records and Fitzsimmons’ social media postings.
Essex District Attorney Paul F. Tucker, whose office is investigating the shooting, declined Tuesday to provide details of the confrontation between Fitzsimmons and the officers who came to her home.
Tucker said State Police detectives are still piecing together what transpired in the Cape-style home and are conducting interviews with the officers who served the restraining order.
John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe. Emily Sweeney can be reached at emily.sweeney@globe.com. Follow her @emilysweeney and on Instagram @emilysweeney22.