A man believed to be Tom Phillips, who evaded authorities with his three children for nearly four years, was shot and killed by a police officer on Monday after an armed confrontation, New Zealand police said. A police officer was shot in the head during the incident and was in critical condition undergoing surgery, authorities said. A child who was with the man at the time of a burglary was taken into custody and is cooperating with investigators.
Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Jill Rogers told reporters in Hamilton that the man has not yet been formally identified by investigators but was believed to be Phillips. Relatives have confirmed his death to local media. Authorities said they were still seeking the other two children and held "serious concerns" for their welfare.
Police said the incident began early Monday at an agricultural supplies store in the rural Waikato farming region, south of Auckland, in the same sprawling area where the family had been believed to be hiding. Acting Detective Inspector Andrew Saunders said the child taken into custody was cooperating with authorities. The officer who was shot underwent surgery and further operations were expected, Rogers said.
Phillips and his children first drew national attention after they disappeared in December 2021 from the isolated North Island settlement of Marokopa, a community of about 40 people, according to police. Investigators scoured densely forested terrain in the area and believed the family had not travelled far from the settlement, but credible sightings were rare and sightings that did emerge were limited largely to closed-circuit camera footage capturing alleged crimes.
Police have long expressed concern for the children's welfare, saying the father did not have legal custody rights and that the children had not had access to formal education or routine health care since their disappearance. Authorities also said they believed Phillips had assistance from others who concealed the family in the remote countryside; some residents of the area expressed support for him.
The family had previously gone missing in September 2021, triggering a three-week land and sea search after Phillips' truck was found abandoned on a remote beach near where the family lived. Searchers eventually called off the operation, concluding the family might have died, before Phillips and the children later emerged from forested land, saying they had been camping. Phillips was charged with wasting police resources in that episode and was due in court in January 2022, but he and the children vanished again weeks before the scheduled appearance.
With the trail cold, police at one point said they believed the family might have moved elsewhere in New Zealand and changed their names. The search resumed in 2023 after several sightings of Phillips in the same region where they had disappeared. He was wanted for an armed bank robbery in May 2023, in which he was accused of being accompanied by one of his children and of firing at a member of the public, police said. He was last seen on CCTV in August this year during a nighttime robbery of a grocery store, again accompanied by one of the children, the police said.
Authorities offered a reward of 80,000 New Zealand dollars and an offer of immunity from prosecution for information about the family's whereabouts in June; the reward was not paid. The renewed search and public appeals over the past years had generated sustained public interest and concern in New Zealand.
The children's mother, identified only by her first name, Cat, in New Zealand media, issued a statement to Radio New Zealand on Monday saying 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," she said.
Police said further work was under way to formally identify the man killed and to establish the circumstances surrounding the shooting, the burglary and the whereabouts of the missing children. Investigations into the earlier crimes for which Phillips was wanted remain active, Saunders said.