{"id":6870,"date":"2025-09-09T19:16:40","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T19:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/new-zealand-police-detail-slain-fugitive-fathers-life-on-the-run\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T19:16:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T19:16:40","slug":"new-zealand-police-detail-slain-fugitive-fathers-life-on-the-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/new-zealand-police-detail-slain-fugitive-fathers-life-on-the-run\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand police detail slain fugitive father\u2019s life on the run"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WELLINGTON, Sept 9 — A fugitive father killed in a shootout with New Zealand police after nearly four years on the run with his children maintained a bushland hideout stocked with firearms and ammunition, the force said today.<\/p>\n

Tom Phillips’ days as a fugitive came to a bloody end this week when he was killed in a police shootout in the rolling hill country of the North Island’s Waikato region.<\/p>\n

His three children were safely recovered.<\/p>\n

Police detailed today their time in the bush and how they were able to stay undetected for so long.<\/p>\n

“Phillips and his children have been very mobile and moved frequently,” New Zealand Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said.<\/p>\n

The family’s mobility made it a “challenge” for authorities to find them, he explained.<\/p>\n

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Authorities also took great caution in dealing with Phillips because they knew he was armed and dangerous.<\/p>\n

“We have taken time over four years to consider how best to deal with the situation,” Chambers said.<\/p>\n

“We were confident that, irrespective of how hard we tried to bring it to a peaceful conclusion, that with a motivated person that was always going to be a challenge,” he said.<\/p>\n

At Phillips’ bush camp hideout nestled in the scrub, the family had access to two red quad bikes, firearms and ammunition, police said.<\/p>\n

Strewn across the site was a fuel container, spare tires and empty bottles, photos showed.<\/p>\n

But there were touches of small luxuries, including cans of soft drinks.<\/p>\n

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Police also found firearms and ammunition at the site.<\/p>\n

The camp was just two kilometres from where yesterday’s shooting took place, Chambers said, in “deep bush, not an easily found location for anybody”.<\/p>\n

Outside help <\/strong><\/p>\n

Authorities have said they believed sympathetic locals were assisting Phillips, and they would investigate whether he had help getting hold of guns and a quad bike.<\/p>\n

“There is a lot of work to do to try and understand who, if anybody, was assisting Mr Phillips and we will deal with that should that be the case,” Chambers said.<\/p>\n

Phillips absconded with his three children in December 2021 after a row with his former partner and eluded capture for years despite several sightings.<\/p>\n

He was killed in a gunfight with police after shooting an officer in the head and shoulder with a high-powered rifle.<\/p>\n

Police said today that the officer’s injuries were “confronting” and that he had a “long road to recovery” ahead.<\/p>\n

He was shot at “close range”, Chambers explained.<\/p>\n

“With a high powered rifle, you can appreciate the damage that that can do.”<\/p>\n

One of Phillips’ children was with him during Monday’s shooting and was taken into custody.<\/p>\n

The other two siblings were found at about 4.30pm (12.30pm Malaysian time) after a full day’s search at a remote campsite in the bush about two kilometres from where the shooting occurred.<\/p>\n

Since fleeing in 2021, police suspected Phillips of committing several crimes and charged him with aggravated robbery, aggravated wounding, and unlawful possession of a firearm.<\/p>\n

The mother of the three children, known as Cat, said yesterday she was relieved the ordeal had ended.<\/p>\n

She asked for the family’s privacy to be respected as the children reintegrate into a “stable and loving environment” after “a long and difficult journey”. — AFP<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

New Zealand police detail slain fugitive father’s life on the run<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WELLINGTON, Sept 9 — A fugitive father killed in a shootout with New Zealand police after nearly four years on the run with his children maintained a bushland hideout stocked with firearms and ammunition, the force said today. Tom Phillips’ days as a fugitive came to a bloody end this week when he was killed…<\/p>\n

Read More “New Zealand police detail slain fugitive father\u2019s life on the run”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6871,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}