A New Zealand father who evaded authorities with his 3 children for years is shot dead by the police

Tom Phillips is seen in this undated handout photo from New Zealand Police. (NZ Police)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- A man who evaded authorities with his three children in the remote New Zealand countryside for nearly four years was shot and killed by a police officer Monday, law enforcement said.

One child was with Tom Phillips at the time of the confrontation and the other two children were found in the forest hours after the shoot-out, in which an officer was critically injured.

The December 2021 disappearance of Phillips and his children -- now about 9, 10 and 11 years old -- confounded investigators for years as they scoured the densely forested area where they believed the family was hiding. The father and children were not believed to ever have travelled far from the isolated North Island rural settlement of Marokopa where they lived, but credible sightings of them were rare.

Phillips has not been formally identified, but authorities believed he was the man killed.

Police officer was shot and critically injured

A police officer was shot in the head and critically injured during a confrontation with Phillips after he robbed an agricultural supplies store early Monday morning, New Zealand’s Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Jill Rogers told reporters in the city of Hamilton. The child with Phillips at the time of the robbery was taken into custody.

The officer was undergoing surgery at a hospital. His injuries were survivable, Rogers said, but he was shot “multiple times with a high-powered rifle” and further surgeries were expected.

Fugitive’s other two children found hours after shoot-out

The whereabouts of Phillips’ other two children was unknown immediately after the shooting and authorities held serious concerns for them, Rogers said earlier.

About 13 hours after their father was killed, however, Rogers told reporters that the children had been found unaccompanied at a remote campsite in rugged forest. The child taken into custody Monday had co-operated with the authorities, allowing them to narrow the search area, she said.

The farm supplies store targeted Monday was in a small town in the same sprawling farming region of Waikato, south of Auckland, as the settlement of about 40 people from where the family vanished. 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, accompanied by one of his children, in which he reportedly shot at a member of the public.

Authorities believed Phillips had help

Phillips did not have legal custody rights for his children, Detective Senior Sgt. Andrew Saunders told reporters in 2024. Authorities said they had not had access to formal education or health care since their disappearance.

Law enforcement always believed that Phillips had help concealing his family and some residents of the isolated rural area expressed support for him. A reward of 80,000 New Zealand dollars (US$47,000), large by New Zealand standards was offered for information about the family’s whereabouts last June, but it was never paid.

Family had gone missing before

December 2021 was not the first time Phillips prompted national news headlines after disappearing with his children. The family went missing that September, launching a three-week land and sea search after Phillips’ truck was found abandoned on a wild beach near where he lived.

Authorities eventually ended the search, concluding the family might have died, before Phillips and the children emerged from dense forest where he said they had been camping. He was charged with wasting police resources and was due to appear in court in January 2022, but weeks before the scheduled date he and the children vanished again.

The police did not immediately launch a search because Phillips, who is experienced in the outdoors, had told family he was taking the children on another trip. He never returned.

The search intensified again after several sightings of Phillips in 2023 in the same region where he had vanished. He was last seen on surveillance video in August this year as he robbed a grocery store in the night, accompanied by one of his children.

Children’s mother issues a statement

The children’s mother issued a statement to Radio New Zealand on Monday in which she said she was “deeply relieved” that the “ordeal” for her children had ended.

“They have been dearly missed every day for nearly four years, and we are looking forward to welcoming them home with love and care,” said the woman, who has been identified in New Zealand news outlets only by her first name, Cat.

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By Charlotte Graham-mclay