NZ children found in remote bush after fugitive father shot dead

Wellington: Two children have been found at a remote bush camp in New Zealand following an intense search of the area, after their fugitive father was shot dead by police south of Auckland.

Tom Phillips was killed in a shootout in Waikato after nearly four years on the run with his three children, now aged nine, 10 and 12. One of the children was with Phillips when he died and helped police locate the siblings in what police described as rough and rugged surroundings.

The children were found about 4.30pm local time (2.30pm AEST) after hours of searching, near the road where their father was killed in a shootout that also left a police officer seriously injured with multiple gunshot wounds, including to the head.

“They’ve been found in a campsite not far from here, further up the Te Anga Road,” New Zealand Police acting Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers said.

“They are with police officers now, and being removed from that location. I can confirm that the children are well and uninjured, and they will be taken to a location this evening for medical checks.”

The children’s mother had been informed. Rogers said the child found this morning with Phillips had provided crucial information to police to narrow the search boundaries.

Phillips disappeared into remote New Zealand bush with the children in late 2021 in a case that has made national headlines over his ability to evade arrest.

Rogers said earlier on Monday that police had been alerted to an alleged robbery at a farm supply store in the small town of Piopio in the Waikato region about 2.30am, Auckland time (12.30am AEST). The location and description of the alleged burglars led police to believe it could be Phillips and back-up was called.

Officers laid spikes on the route they believed he would take, which halted his quad bike a short distance from Piopio.

The first officer at the scene was “confronted by gunfire at close range”, Rogers said.

“Our officer has been struck in the head. He’s immediately fallen to the ground and taken cover,” she said. His injuries were survivable, Rogers said, but he was shot “multiple times with a high-powered rifle” and further surgeries were expected.

She said a second police officer then arrived and Phillips was shot. Despite efforts to save him, he died at the scene.

Rogers added that, while Phillips had not been formally identified, police believed it was him.

Images from the scene show a police car riddled with bullets in the middle of a rural road. A quad bike is pulled to the side of the road, loaded with what looks like buckets and supplies. What appears to be a large rifle lies in the grass nearby.

The child who was with Phillips was taken into custody at that point, Rogers said, but there were “serious concerns” for the other two children left unaccompanied in the bush, prompting the police search.

The three children’s mother, referred to as just Cat, said in a statement to state-owned Radio New Zealand before her children were found that the events had brought up a wave of “complex emotions”.

“We are deeply relieved that for our tamariki [children] this ordeal has come to an end. They have been dearly missed every day for nearly four years, and we are looking forward to welcoming them home with love and care,” she said.

“At the same time, we are saddened by how events unfolded today. Our hope has always been that the children could be returned in a peaceful and safe way for everyone involved.”

Phillips first went bush with his children in September 2021. Police scoured the rugged coastline around the small farming community of Marokopa where he had lived, but he turned up two weeks later.

They disappeared again in December 2021 and have been pursued by police ever since. He evaded authorities by apparently hiding out in dense bush and remote farmland in New Zealand’s central North Island.

The case has fascinated New Zealanders and the authorities made regular, unsuccessful appeals for information.

Sightings of Phillips were limited to surveillance footage that showed him allegedly committing crimes in the area. He was wanted for an armed bank robbery while on the run in May 2023.

Piopio, where the robbery occurred on Monday, was about 90 minutes by road from Marokopa.

A resident on Te Anga Road told Stuff they had noticed more traffic on the road and “a few helicopters going over”. A woman said she heard helicopters flying overhead about 3am or 4am.

The road was cordoned off about 10 kilometres from Waitomo Caves on Monday morning, and a person at the cordon said a child was seen being taken out of the area in the back of a police car.

“A significant police operation is under way,” a spokesperson said, adding a road closure was most likely to be in place for “a couple of days”.

Waitomo District Mayor John Robertson said Phillips’ death was the worst outcome the community could have envisaged.

He said the injured policeman was a long-serving local officer and the news that he had been wounded was “just tragic”.

The Independent Police Conduct Authority will carry out an investigation.

Stuff.co.nz, Reuters, AP

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