A Massachusetts judge delivered a not guilty verdict Thursday to a former North Andover police officer who faced up to five years in prison after being accused of pointing her service weapon at fellow officers who arrived at her door to serve a restraining order.
Kelsey Fitzsimmons, 29, stood charged with a single count of assault with a dangerous weapon following a chaotic incident on June 30, 2025, at her North Andover home.
Essex Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Karp presided over the case without a jury, as Fitzsimmons exercised her right to a bench trial.
Fitzsimmons embraced family members and her legal team following the verdict.
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The New York Post reported that she had been shot in the chest during the incident and spent more than 50 days in the hospital, undergoing five surgeries before ultimately facing criminal charges upon her release.
Officers arrived at Fitzsimmons’ home that evening to serve a restraining order filed by her then-fiancé, North Andover firefighter Justin Aylaian, 32.
Aylaian had sought full custody of the couple’s four-month-old son and alleged that Fitzsimmons posed a threat to herself, to him, and to their child.
Officer Patrick Noonan, a SWAT-trained member of the North Andover Police Department, testified that Fitzsimmons pointed her service weapon at him and pulled the trigger.
He said the gun made a clicking sound, indicating it had jammed. Noonan further testified that Fitzsimmons then performed a “tap rack” maneuver — a technique used to clear a jammed firearm and chamber a round — which prompted him to shoot her.
Fitzsimmons disputed that account entirely.
Testifying in her own defense, she told the court she lied to the responding officers about the location of her firearm, claiming it was in the basement when it was actually in her bedroom.
She admitted the deception was deliberate, the Daily Mail previously highlighted.
Fitzsimmons testified that she was blindsided by the restraining order, which she described as the moment she learned Aylaian was ending their relationship.
She testified that her mind began racing over all she stood to lose.
“I saw my baby go, my fiancé, my dog, my house, and I knew that it was going to be my job, too,” she said during her testimony.
Defense attorney Timothy Bradl argued that Fitzsimmons was in the grip of a mental health crisis stemming from postpartum depression, and that her goal was to harm herself — not her colleagues.
He alleged that Noonan used excessive force and had motivation to adjust his account of events afterward to shield himself from scrutiny.
Noonan pushed back on the excessive force allegation during cross-examination.
When asked by Bradl why he did not use a taser instead of his firearm, Noonan responded, “We meet deadly force with deadly force.”
Asked whether using deadly force on someone threatening only themselves is prohibited, Noonan answered, “Absolutely.”
Noonan also told the court: “I think I was standing in her way for her to get downstairs and kill Justin.”
They contended that the only reason the confrontation did not turn fatal was because of Noonan’s SWAT training and the fact that there was no round in the chamber of her weapon at the moment she pulled the trigger.
Judge Karp found the testimonies of both Fitzsimmons and Noonan to be largely credible, which he described as “unusual and somewhat perplexing.”
He acknowledged the “crucial and often thankless role” played by law enforcement and said Noonan did the best he could under rapidly evolving circumstances. However, Karp concluded that prosecutors fell short of meeting their burden of proof.
“Under these circumstances, I am left with a reasonable doubt, and I am duty-bound to find that the Commonwealth has not met its burden,” Karp said, per the Post.
“My verdict is, and must be, not guilty.”
