Two children still missing, say police
Eva Corlett
Police have not yet located the children of Tom Phillips, acting deputy commissioner Jill Rogers said in a press conference on Monday afternoon.
“We have children we believe are unaccompanied in the bush and it is our priority to locate them.”
Specialist teams, including about 50 staff and the armed offenders squad, were out in force to locate the children, Rogers said.
We can’t speculate as to whether they have assistance with them or not.
Rogers said there were about three hours of daylight left.
Key events
Here are some of the latest pictures coming in from the North Island area where Tom Phillips was killed early this morning in a shootout with police.
Eva Corlett
Luxon said what unfolded today was a “sad and absolutely tragic event”.
“This is not what anybody wanted to happen today and I think that is … a consistent feeling from from everybody across New Zealand,” the prime minister said.
We’re used to seeing these stories from other parts of the world, but not here in New Zealand. And it’s certainly a very sad and tragic day.
PM says ‘questions to ask’ of police over Phillips case
Eva Corlett
Prime minister Christopher Luxon said the police’s years-long investigation into the disappearance of Tom Phillips would warrant inquiry.
“I think there will be a series of questions to ask in due course, but today just isn’t that day.
Today is a day where we are … thinking and praying for a fallen police colleague. We are also making sure that those children can be found as quickly and as safely as possible.
All New Zealanders want Phillips’ two children found – PM
Eva Corlett
Prime minister Christopher Luxon says the whole of New Zealand is anxiously waiting for the children of Tom Phillips to be found.
Luxon told media on Monday afternoon that this morning’s events “are not how anyone would have wanted this to end”.
I doubt there is a New Zealander who has not followed, to some extent, the story of the abduction of the children, of whom there have been only intermittent sightings since December 2021.
Luxon said police were devastated by what has happened to their colleague but were focusing on finding the children.
The December 2021 disappearance of Tom Phillips and his three children confounded investigators for years as they scoured the densely forested area where they believed the family was hiding.
The family was not believed to have ever have travelled far from the isolated North Island rural settlement of Marokopa where they lived, but credible sightings of them were rare, as the Associated Press reports.
The farm supplies store Phillips targeted this morning is in a small town in the same sprawling farming region of Waikato, south of Auckland, as the settlement of about 40 people from where he and his three children vanished.
Police believed Phillips had help concealing his family and some residents of the isolated rural area expressed support for him. A reward of NZ$80,000 and an offer of immunity from prosecution was offered for information about the family’s whereabouts last June but was never paid.
Here’s footage we’ve just published of acting deputy commissioner Jill Rogers telling reporters what happened as fugitive father Tom Phillips was shot dead during a shootout with police this morning after a reported store robbery in Piopio.
Eva Corlett
That concludes the press conference. Acting deputy commissioner Jill Rogers said police would alert media to any major updates throughout the evening, should they occur.
Eva Corlett
The mother of the children, Cat, is being kept informed of the situation, acting deputy commissioner Jill Rogers said.
However, Rogers said that to her knowledge, Cat had not been reunited with the child taken into custody today.
Eva Corlett
The constable who was injured in the incident with Tom Phillips this morning had commenced the first of many surgeries, Jill Rogers told the press conference.
“He’s gone back in for further surgery this afternoon on the injuries to his eye, and he will remain in Waikato hospital for some time to come, having those injuries tended to,” the police acting deputy commissioner said.
His family and his nearest are with him, and he’s been well supported as is his family.
Eva Corlett
The terrain is “rough and rugged” as police search for the two missing children, Jill Rogers said.
“It will be down to freezing point, I would imagine, this evening,” the acting deputy commissioner said. “Hence we want this incident resolved as soon as possible.”
Two children still missing, say police
Eva Corlett
Police have not yet located the children of Tom Phillips, acting deputy commissioner Jill Rogers said in a press conference on Monday afternoon.
“We have children we believe are unaccompanied in the bush and it is our priority to locate them.”
Specialist teams, including about 50 staff and the armed offenders squad, were out in force to locate the children, Rogers said.
We can’t speculate as to whether they have assistance with them or not.
Rogers said there were about three hours of daylight left.
Acting deputy police commissioner Jill Rogers is scheduled to speak to the media in Waitomo in the next 10 minutes.
The press conference is expected to provide the latest updates on the early-morning confrontation in Piopio involving fugitive Tom Phillips.
Eva Corlett
Who was Tom Phillips? He came from the tiny rural settlement Marokopa, where his family has farmed for generations.
Police described Phillips as someone who didn’t live a mainstream lifestyle.
“He doesn’t engage in social media [and] he is really guarded in terms of his use of mainstream banks,” police South Waikato area commander Will Loughrin told media in 2023.
He likes to exist off the grid.
Loughrin believed Phillips was getting support from “a person or persons who believe in his cause, believe that Tom is doing is the right thing”.
Phillips’ sister, Rozzi Phillips, spoke highly of her younger brother in an interview last month.
He was a good brother with an “amazing sense of humour”, she said, adding he was an excellent outdoorsman who could build, hunt and survive.
The long-running mystery over Phillips and his children’s whereabouts has prompted multiple searches, offers of rewards and pleas for information from family members and the police. New Zealand struggled to understand how, in a country of close-knit communities, Phillips could have evaded detection,” writes the Guardian’s New Zealand correspondent, Eva Corlett, in this compelling feature on the saga.
Temperatures are forecast to drop to 1C overnight tonight in the Waikato region amid the search for Tom Phillips’ two missing children.
Police have said they are working urgently to locate them after Phillips was shot dead by police following a reported store robbery and one of his children – who was with him – was taken into custody.
AccuWeather forecasts a Waikato high today of 16C and a nighttime low of 1C.
Tuesday’s predicted to have sunny periods with late scattered showers.
New Zealand police will hold a second press conference with acting deputy commissioner Jill Rogers today at 3.30pm local time, Eva Corlett is reporting.
We’ll bring you more from that conference as it happens
Summary
Here’s a summary of this morning’s events as fugitive father Tom Phillips – missing with his three children for nearly four years – was shot dead by New Zealand police after a reported shop burglary.
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Police responded about 2.30am on Monday to reports of a burglary at a rural farm supply store in Piopio on the North Island, deputy commissioner Jill Rogers said. Two people were described as being on a quad bike, “dressed in farm clothing and wearing headlamps”.
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The quad bike was later seen travelling on a rural road carrying store items, police laid down spikes and the bike ran over them, Rogers said. The bike stopped and an exchange of fire ensued, with the man being hit and later dying at the scene and a police officer being struck in the head.
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One of Phillips’s children was located at the scene, as well as multiple firearms, Rogers said. “We are making urgent inquiries to locate Tom Phillips’ other children, who we hold serious concerns for.”
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The police officer suffered critical injuries and was undergoing surgery at hospital, Rogers said. Phillips was given immediate first aid but died at the scene. He was yet to be identified, Rogers said, but police believed him to be Phillips.
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Phillips fled into the Waikato wilderness with his three children – now aged nine, 10 and 12 – just before Christmas 2021 after a dispute with their mother.
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The mother of the three children, known as Cat, was relieved the ordeal had come to an end but “saddened by how events had unfolded”, she told New Zealand broadcaster RNZ. “Our hope has always been that the children could be returned in a peaceful and safe way for everyone involved.” The family would be working with government agencies to support the safe return and reconnection of the children, she said.
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The mayor of Waitomo, John Robertson, told the Guardian this morning’s events were devastating and “really the worst outcome we could have expected”.
Ima Caldwell
New Zealand police have said they are now searching for the remaining two children and will use every remaining resource to find them.
The child who was with Tom Phillips this morning was taken into oranga tamariki (ministry for children) custody and was cooperating with police, they said.
RNZ reported that oranga tamariki said in a statement that the situation was “sensitive” and its focus and duty was entirely on supporting the children. It referred any questions to police.
Ima Caldwell
Child psychologist Sara Chatwin spoke with NZ Herald NOW host Ryan Bridge this morning to discuss the potential impact of the shooting on the Phillips children.
Chatwin said the children had “been away from other family, you’ve been living with your dad, you love him, he’s your parent, you’re used to a way of living and to have that shattered … and to have lost your dad, that is hugely significant”.
We’ve got to be mindful that they have spent so much time in this state, with their dad on the run… that is what they are used to and they have spent a lot of the formative years in this situation. It’s a hugely traumatising situation.
Bridge asked how the children may go about reintegrating into society after four years. Chatwin said:
Education has taken a nosedive, they haven’t had social interactions, all parts of their lives have been changed. The grieving for a parent, that’s huge and that will take a lot of time.
I’m hopeful that the other two children will be found safe and that the healing process can begin with responsible reporting, with a lot of support … and with expertise when they need it.
