Fugitive father on the run with children for years found, shot down by the police in NZ – National

A fugitive father, who had been on the run with his three children since 2021 in the campaign distant from New Zealand, was shot down on Monday by a police officer, according to local police.

The man sought after, Tom Phillips, was with a child during the confrontation. The other two children were found in the forest a few hours after the shooting, in which an officer was seriously injured.

The disappearance of December 2021 of Phillips and his children – now aged approximately 9, 10 and 11 years old – confused investigators for years while browsing the densely wooded area where they thought that the family was hiding. The father and the children were not considered far from the isolated rural colony of the northern island of Marokopa, where they lived, but the credible observations of them were rare.

The police responded to a break-in in an agricultural store in a small rural town, which led to the confrontation with Phillips who made an officer injured critically after being killed at the head, according to the interim assistant commissioner of New Zealand, Jill Rogers.

The child with Phillips at the time of the flight was placed in police custody.

The officer was operated on in the hospital and his injuries are survivable, Rogers told journalists. She added that the officer had been shot “several times with a high power rifle” and that new surgeries are expected.

Rogers said that the location of the other two children in Phillips was not immediately known after the shooting and that the authorities were serious for them.

About 1 pm after the death of their father, Rogers told journalists that the children had not been found in a campsite remote in an accident forest. The child placed in police custody on Monday had cooperated with the authorities, allowing them to reduce the research area, said Rogers.

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“It is the result of incredible police work that had to face a high -risk situation and difficult circumstances earlier this morning and throughout the day,” said police commissioner Richard Chambers. “I would like to thank our colleague who was shot dead and faces a long recovery. I will come back to New Zealand late tonight and travel to Waikato in the morning. ”

The mother of the children published a report on Radio New Zealand on Monday, saying that she was “deeply relieved” that her children’s “ordeal” ended.

“We have been missing a lot every day for almost four years, and we are impatient to welcome them at home with love and care,” said the woman, who was identified in the New Zealand media only by her first name, Cat.

“At the same time, we are saddened by the way the events took place today. Our hope has always been that children could be returned peacefully and safe for all those involved. ”

In March, officials announced that they would seek in and around rural communities in the region distant from Waikato, northern island of New Zealand, the region where Phillips and its children were spotted for the last time and hid.

The agricultural supplies store targeted in the flight was located in the same small town in the agricultural region of Waikato.

Phillips’ past observations were limited to the surveillance images that showed him crimes that would have committed crimes in the region. He was wanted for an armed bank flight in May 2023, also accompanied by one of his children, in which he would have shot a member of the public.

Phillips fled with his children – Ember, Maverick and Jayda – in Waikato just before Christmas in 2021. Phillips, who did not have legal custody of his children, would have fought with the mother of children shortly before the disappearance.

The authorities said that children had not had access to formal education or health care since their disappearance.

The police always believed that Phillips had helped to hide his family. A reward of $ 80,000 in New Zealand (US $ 47,000), a large amount according to New Zealand standards, was proposed to obtain information on the fate of the family last June, but it was not paid to anyone.

December 2021 was not the first time that Phillips has sparked major news titles after having disappeared with his children. The family disappeared in September, launching research on land and the sea of ​​three weeks after the Phillips truck was found abandoned on a wild beach near the place where they lived.

The authorities canceled the search after concluding that the family could die, before Phillips and his children left the forest where they said they were camped. He was accused of having wasted police resources and was to appear in court in January 2022, but weeks before the hearing date, he and the children disappeared again.

Police did not launch another search immediately because Phillips said he was taking the children during another campsite trip.

The search for Phillips and his children started again after several phillips observations were reported.

Last October, the New Zealand Herald reported that the teenage pig hunters had captured Phillips video sequences and its children, who would be the first observation of the three children at the same time.

The video showed the quartet all dressed in camouflage and carrying large camping bags on a plot of rugged agricultural land.

The mother of the children, who saw them for the last time in 2021, told Herald that she was “relieved” to know that they were alive.

“I am so happy that they are all there,” she said, instantly recognizing each child. “I am so relieved to see my three babies. They are all alive. “

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– With Global News and Associated Press files

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