00:00A New Zealand father who had been on the run with his three children for nearly four years
00:05was fatally shot by police on Monday after robbing a farm supply store.
00:10Tom Phillips disappeared in late 2021 with his three children now aged 9, 10 and 12
00:17in a case that has made headlines due to his prolonged evasion of arrest.
00:22Police were alerted around 2.30am local time on Monday to a robbery at a store in a small
00:27rural town in Waikato. They then laid road spikes on a route that it was thought the fugitive
00:32and one of his children would take.
00:34Phillips' bike then did hit the spikes and New Zealand Police Acting Deputy Commissioner
00:38Jill Rogers described the ensuing incident at a press conference.
00:42The first attending police officer at that scene has come across that stopped quad bike
00:49and been confronted by gunfire at close range. Our officer has been struck in the head, he's
00:56immediately fallen to the ground and taken cover. Soon after, a second patrol unit arrived
01:02and has engaged the offender and he has died at the scene.
01:06The formal identification of this male is yet to take place but we believe him to be Tom Phillips.
01:13A second person was located at the scene and multiple firearms were located on and around
01:20the quad bike. Our injured officer has been airlifted to Waikato Hospital by the Westpac Rescue.
01:26He is undergoing surgery as we speak.
01:29The police said all the children are now safe in custody.
01:33Phillips had been a fugitive since failing to appear at a court hearing in 2022.
01:37He allegedly evaded authorities by hiding out in dense bush and remote farmland in New Zealand's central North Island.
01:44The children's mother, known as Cat, said in a statement to a local radio station that the event stirred complex emotions.
01:51She said, quote,
01:52They have been dearly missed every day for nearly four years and we are looking forward to welcoming them home with love and care.
01:59Before disappearing, Phillips had lived in the small farming community of Maricopa, near the West Coast, home to fewer than 100 people.
02:07Phillips is a natural world.
02:13I mean, what are their buildings in the sanctuary of the land?
02:13I mean, what can we do?
02:15What do we do here?
02:16What do we do here?
02:17I mean, perhaps the people of the people who are not participating in the state of the city of Maricopa, near the Westpac, near the Westpac, near the Westpac.
02:19That's the same.
02:20There are many people of the volunteers who do not live in the state of the state of Hawaii.
02:23We want to do this.
02:24We want to see if we are all together in a state of this environment.
02:27We want to see if we are through a live radio station.
02:28We want to see if we can be in a state of our country.
02:30We want to see if we can be in a state of the state of the nation.
02:31We want to have a room now.
