Fugitive Father In New Zealand Shot Dead After 4 Years On Run; Children Found Safe

Last Updated:September 08, 2025, 22:20 IST

Tom Phillips, missing with his three children since 2021, was shot dead by New Zealand police in Waikato after a robbery. The children are safe and will undergo medical checks.

(Reuters/ Representational Photo)

A New Zealand man on the run with his three children for almost four years was shot by police on Monday; authorities confirmed the children are now safe in custody.

According to the police, Tom Phillips disappeared with his children, now aged 9, 10, and 12, in late 2021 in a case that has made national headlines over his ability to evade arrest.

New Zealand police acting Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers said at a press conference that a police officer was shot several times with a high-powered rifle and seriously injured in the attempt to arrest Phillips, Reuters reported.

Around 2:30 a.m. (1430 GMT Sunday), police were alerted to a robbery at a store in a small rural town in Waikato. Officers deployed road spikes along a route they believed Phillips and one of his children would take.

Phillips’ motorbike hit the spikes, and 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,” Rogers said, adding that the injuries were survivable.

She said a second officer arrived shortly after, at which point Phillips was shot. Despite attempts to revive him, he died at the scene. While the body has yet to be formally identified, police said they were confident it was Phillips.

One of his children was with him during the shooting, and the other two children were later found at a campsite in dense bush.

“I can confirm that the children are well and uninjured, and they will be taken to a location this evening for medical checks,” Rogers said.

In 2022, Phillips failed to attend a court hearing and has been pursued by police ever since. He evaded authorities by allegedly hiding out in thick bush and remote farmland in New Zealand’s central North Island.

The children’s mother, identified only as Cat, told state-owned Radio New Zealand that they had been “deeply missed every day for nearly four years” and that she was eager to welcome them home with love and care.

New Zealanders have struggled to understand how Phillips managed to evade capture for so long in the remote area of the Waikato region.

Before his disappearance, Phillips resided in Marokopa, a tiny farming community on the west coast with fewer than 100 residents. Piopio, the site of Monday’s robbery, lies about an hour and a half’s drive from Marokopa.

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