It was one of fugitive father Tom Phillips’ children who alerted officers to firearms at their campsite after Phillips was shot dead by police yesterday.
Phillips and his children - Jayda, 12, Maverick, 10, and Ember, 9 - had been missing for almost four years, with only a few occasional sightings.
Yesterday morning, Phillips was shot by police after breaking into a store in Piopio. One of his children was with him when he was shot.
Speaking on RNZ this morning, Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said the campsite where two children were found was one police weren’t familiar with.
It was in deep bush about 2km from where Phillips was shot, he said.
Chambers said the child who had been with Phillips “helped us with the information that we needed to ensure the safe approach”.
They told police there were guns at the campsite.
Tom Phillips and his three children had been missing for almost four years. PHOTO: SUPPLIED/NZ POLICE
Four-year saga comes to sad end
It all began with an early morning call from a member of the public.
About 2.30am yesterday police received a call from a Piopio resident to say they believed they were witnessing a burglary at PGG Wrightson.
There was more. The burglary involved two people on a quadbike dressed in farm clothing and wearing headlamps.
It had been only 12 days since fugitive Tom Phillips and one of his children were caught on camera in relation to a burglary at the Piopio Superette. That footage matched the description provided by the caller yesterday.
"Knowing the information that we had previously had that had seen Tom Phillips also in this area, additional staff were called out and responded to that location," Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers would later tell media.
A quadbike was seen leaving the area along the Waipuna road, a gravel road that intersects with Te Anga Rd, the main road leading back to Marokopa.
In what Dep Comm Rogers would call "officer intuition", a constable, realising that if Phillips was heading back to Marokopa that would be his route of choice, decided to lay road spikes at the intersection about 3.20am.
The constable, who was first on the scene, came across the bike and was confronted by gunfire at close range. He was shot in the head multiple times.
"He was getting out of the vehicle and has fallen to the ground. He’s taken cover back in the vehicle," Dep Comm Rogers said.
A second patrol car then arrived and "engaged" Phillips, who was shot and died at the scene. One of Phillips’ children was then taken into custody uninjured.
The officer was then flown to Waikato Hospital by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter in a critical condition. At the hospital, he was conscious and able to speak to some of his colleagues.
Asked why the police officer was on his own at the time he was shot, Dep Comm Rogers said staff up and down the country worked solo in such rural, remote locations.
"He knew that he had support coming. And when you’re travelling these roads at night, I can tell you, they are completely dark. What he came across this morning in the early hours would have been completely unexpected."
Upon closer inspection of the quadbike police found multiple firearms, one of which was a high-powered rifle that had been used to shoot the officer.
In her first briefing about 11am, Dep Comm Rogers said police were making "urgent inquiries" to locate Phillips’ other children, who they had "serious concerns" for.
The child who was in custody was co-operating with police, she said.
Dep Comm Rogers said the No1 priority, as it had been for four years, was to find the child’s siblings.
"This has been the outcome that no-one wanted today, and so we ask that anyone that may be helping or has information that may help to locate these children, provides it so that we can resolve this incident swiftly."
The officer in charge of the investigation into the missing children then briefly spoke to the media.
"It’s mixed emotions," he began when asked how he was feeling.
"This is devastating. It’s not the outcome we wanted, but we’ve got one child out safely, and our focus is now is really finding the other children, getting them out safely."
About 3.30pm yesterday, Dep Comm Rogers held a second press conference.
"I can confirm that we are still searching for the children of Tom Phillips. We have not located them at this stage ... Our primary focus [is] to reunite those children and extract them as soon as possible from where they may be today," she said.
"With the events that have unfolded today, this must come to a conclusion now."
She said police believed the children were unaccompanied in the bush and there were only about three hours of daylight left.
Police had about 50 staff searching the bush including special tactics group and the armed offenders squad. The Eagle helicopter could also be heard flying overhead as she addressed the media.
Dep Comm Rogers said the child who had been found was co-operative in providing information.
She also provided an update on the injured officer, who had suffered "significant injuries", which had been described as "survivable". He had undergone the first of many surgeries and was back in for surgery on injuries to his eye. He would remain in Waikato Hospital for some time to come, she said.
The conference ended with Dep Comm Rogers telling media "if we know anything during the event, we will provide those updates to you".
Almost an hour after her second media briefing of the day, journalists were advised of a third press conference regarding the "critical incident".
At 5.50pm, Dep Comm Rogers said she could now say with "great relief" that about 4.30pm police located Phillips’ remaining children at a campsite further up Te Anga Rd.
"The children are well and uninjured, and they will be taken to a location this evening for medical checks."
She said the children were by themselves at a "very remote" campsite.
"It’s taken our staff some time to walk into it this morning, following information that we were provided earlier in the day."
Dep Comm Rogers said information provided by one of Phillips’ children earlier in the morning was "crucial in narrowing our search boundaries".
"We’ve come across them in the area that we were identified as being a probable location in which we could find them, and we’ve had communication with them, and we’ve safely engaged with them, and they’re now with our police officers."
Asked how the children would be cared for, Dep Comm Rogers said they would receive medical examinations and police would work closely with Oranga Tamariki.
She thanked the community for all the information that had been provided.
Dep Comm Rogers also acknowledged the people on the ground yesterday and those who had been part of the "difficult and taxing investigation" for four years.
Several investigations were now under way, including a critical incident investigation, and the IPCA had been notified.
— RNZ
