North Andover, Massachusetts police officer Kelsey Fitzsimmons was in stable condition Tuesday, a day after she was shot by a fellow officer as she was served with a restraining order.

At a news conference Tuesday, Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker revealed more details about the shooting Monday night.

Three North Andover police officers, one of them a supervisor, went to Fitzsimmons's home on Phillips Brooks Road just after 6 p.m. to "serve a court-approved restraining order," Tucker said. 

"Armed confrontation"

"When one of the officers was escorting Ms. Fitzsimmons during the service of the court order, an armed confrontation took place. As a result of that armed confrontation, one of the responding officers discharged their weapon, which struck Ms. Fitzsimmons once," Tucker told reporters Tuesday.

Fitzsimmons, who was off-duty, was rushed to a hospital in Boston on a medical rescue helicopter. She was in stable condition as of Tuesday morning, the district attorney said. He would not say where she was shot and would not comment on Fitzsimmons's mental health.

"We don't know how long she'll be treated," Tucker said. He added that Fitzsimmons was on administrative leave at the time and that the leave will now be extended. She's been with the North Andover Police Department for about a year and a half. She had filed to have her service weapon returned to her during her leave. North Andover Police Chief Charles Gray would not comment on that, calling it a "personnel matter."

According to court documents, Fitzsimmons had a baby in February, then in March, North Andover Police and EMTs responded to her home for a "female having a mental health episode." She was then hospitalized for 12 hours, diagnosed with post-partum depression and handed over her weapon, documents show. In June, she was cleared to return to work and her license to carry a firearm was reinstated. 

Then on Monday, her fiancé filed a restraining order, alleging that she struck him, threatened to take their baby away and said he feared for their child's safety. Court documents show that he also filed for sole custody of their four-month-old baby.

The officer who fired the shot has not been identified, but the district attorney said he's been with the department for more than 20 years.

When asked directly if Fitzsimmons was armed during the incident, Tucker said, "The very granular details, we're waiting to speak on until we get the interviews back from our state police detectives who are speaking with the North Andover officers that were involved."

"We're concerned for all the officers, on-duty and off-duty, and we're just going to monitor and hopefully get some results," said Chief Gray.

Mental health clinician for law enforcement, Jeff Zeizel, said that access to mental health services after an event like this is critical.

"The more people process their feelings and deal with the trauma, the healthier they become," Zeizel said.

When asked if there was video of the incident, Gray said North Andover Police do not use body cameras "at this time."

"Lots of things remain unanswered"

"There are lots of interviews to be done. There are lots of pieces to be put together. There is lots of things that remain unanswered," Tucker said. 

"But for now, we want to make sure that the people of North Andover and across the Commonwealth know as much as we can give out at this time, being as transparent as we can. We also know that serving restraining orders, court-approved restraining orders are sometimes some of the most dangerous duties that police officers can cover, no matter who the object of that order is."

When asked if officers were going to take Fitzsimmons's service weapon during the incident, Tucker said, "The restraining order was a standard 209A filed by the plaintiff and served by the North Andover officers." 

"Pursuant to the court order, one of the standard boxes to check is retrieval of any firearms in the home. That's standard operating," the district attorney said.

In the abuse prevention order obtained by WBZ-TV, North Andover Police were on notice that serving Fitzsimmons a restraining order could be dangerous.

"Defendant is an officer with a license to carry. Plaintiff expressed concerns regarding Defendant's reaction to being served," said a handwritten note in the court document.

• North Andover News