LAWRENCE, Mass. — An off-duty North Andover police officer who was shot and wounded during an armed confrontation with police trying to serve a restraining order at her home faced a judge on Thursday.
Kelsey Fitzsimmons, 28, was arraigned on charges of armed assault with intent to murder and two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon.
Fitzsimmons appeared in Lawrence District Court via teleconference from a hospital where she is being treated. She pleaded not guilty to all charges and was ordered held without bail on dangerousness grounds.
Fitzsimmons was shot by police once in the chest in the incident on Phillips Brooks Road around 6 p.m. on June 30, according to Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker and her attorney.
Three officers were carrying out a court-ordered restraining order at Fitzsimmons’ home when the shooting happened, according to Tucker and North Andover police. Fitzsimmons was the subject of the restraining order.
“When one of the officers was escorting Ms. Fitzsimmons during the service of the court order, an armed confrontation took place,” Tucker said after the shooting. “One of the standard boxes to check is the retrieval of any firearms in the home.”
The order, obtained by Fitzsimmons’ fiancée and the father of their four-month-old baby, came “by surprise” in an ex-parte fashion “seeking to take the child away from her,” her attorney, Tim Bradl, said last month.
“I am in trouble and have a gunshot wound to my chest because in that awful isolated moment, I no longer had the will to live,” Fitzsimmons said in her first public comment on the incident, adding that she was diagnosed with postpartum depression soon after giving birth to her son in February.
Judge Carol-Ann Fraser presided over the arraignment and stated that she would revisit her order if a suitable release plan is presented that would ensure the safety of the community.
The judge’s order allows Fitzsimmons to remain in the hospital to receive treatment, with a probable cause hearing scheduled on August 28.
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