An off-duty Massachusetts cop stared down the fellow officer who shot her in the chest during a dramatic confrontation last year — as he claimed at her trial that she was trying to kill her fiancê.
North Andover Police Officer Kelsey Fitzsimmons cast a skeptical side-eye at cop Patrick Noonan as he testified at her assault trial about the moment that he opened fire when his attempt to serve a restraining order against her went badly wrong.
The order was from Fitzsimmons’ firefighter fiancé Justin Aylaian, who had won custody of the couple’s 4-month-old son.
Fitzsimmons says she was suffering crippling postpartum depression at the time, but has since gotten help.
“I think I was standing in her way for her to get downstairs and kill Justin,” Noonan told Judge Jeffrey Karp — who will decide whether Fitzsimmons is guilty of assault with a deadly weapon.
Fitzsimmons — who appeared wearing a cream cable knit cardigan and long, wavy blond hair — made the face and appeared to mouth, “What?”
She then leaned over and whispered to her lawyers at the defense table inside the Lawrence, Mass., courtroom.
Noonan was being grilled by Fitzsimmons’ defense attorney Timothy Bradl Tuesday morning about his account of what happened during the June 30, 2025, confrontation.
Noonan claimed Fitzsimmons pointed her firearm at him and pulled the trigger, which made a “click” noise because the gun was jammed.
She then “tap racked” the gun twice — a tactical procedure meant to clear a jam and feed a bullet into the chamber.
She finally loaded the gun, Noonan said, prompting him to fire off two shots, striking her once in the chest, he testified.
The entire thing was over in four seconds.
Bradl argued that Fitzsimmons was lifting the gun to her own head to kill herself, after experiencing the humiliation of her colleagues coming to take her service weapon and her son away.
“You know it’s prohibited for someone to use deadly force on someone who is only exhibiting harm to themselves?” Bradl asked Noonan.
“Absolutely,” Noonan responded.
Bradl then asked why Noonan didn’t just use the taser on Fitzsimmons instead of his gun.
“We meet deadly force with deadly force,” Noonan said.
Fitzsimmons had been on leave from work after giving birth and was due to return to the job in July before the day her world “imploded,” Bradl said during opening arguments Monday.
She had been experiencing postpartum depression that was so severe, Aylaian decided to move out of their home, get a restraining order and temporarily take their baby away — fearing Fitzsimmons might harm herself or the boy, he testified Monday.
Fitzsimmons has requested a bench trial, meaning the judge will decide her fate and not a jury.
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