New Zealand fugitive father on the run with children shot dead by police

A New Zealand father who had been on the run with his three children for nearly four years was shot dead by police on Monday and the children are all safe in custody, police said.

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.

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

Police were alerted to a robbery at a store in a small rural town in the region of Waikato around 2:30 am (1430 GMT Sunday) and laid spikes on the road to stop the suspects - Phillips and one of his children - were expected to 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 police officer then arrived and Phillips was shot, and despite efforts to save him he died at the scene. The body had not been formally identified but police 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.

Phillips failed to attend a court hearing in 2022 and had 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, known only as Cat, said in a statement to state-owned Radio New Zealand that they were "dearly missed every day for nearly four years, and we are looking forward to welcoming 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 disappearing, Phillips had lived in the small farming community of Marokopa, near the west coast, home to less than 100 people. Piopio, where the robbery occurred on Monday, was roughly an hour and a half by road from Marokopa.