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Man who absconded with his three children amid custody dispute was shot dead after firing on police, authorities say.<\/em><\/p>\n Published On 8 Sep 2025<\/span>8 Sep 2025<\/span><\/p>\n A New Zealand father who absconded with his three children after a dispute with his ex-partner nearly four years ago has been killed by police, authorities have said.<\/p>\n Tom Phillips, who had been on the run in the New Zealand wilderness with his children since December 2021, was shot dead after he was confronted by police following a burglary in the rural town of Piopio, police said on Monday.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/p>\n Phillips, who had been involved in a dispute over custody of the children, was killed after he fired \u201cmultiple shots\u201d at the first responding officer at the scene, causing him serious injuries, police said.<\/p>\n Acting Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers said Philips, who had yet to be formally identified, was accompanied by one of his children, who was not injured in the incident.<\/p>\n Rogers said\u00a0authorities were urgently seeking to locate his two other children.<\/p>\n \u201cFollowing the incident, we have been in contact with Phillips\u2019s family and we will be working to provide them with all available support,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n In a statement to Radio New Zealand, the children\u2019s mother, Cat, said she was \u201cdeeply relieved\u201d for her children.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have been dearly missed every day for nearly four years, and we are looking forward to welcoming them home with love and care,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Philips\u2019s disappearance from the remote community of Marokop with his three children \u2013 now aged 12, 10 and nine \u2013 gripped New Zealand and generated global headlines.<\/p>\n Despite a number of sightings over the years and appeals by his family, Philips, who was facing criminal charges including aggravated robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm, managed to continually frustrate efforts by authorities to pinpoint his whereabouts.<\/p>\n Authorities had announced the most recent sighting of Philips less than two weeks ago, releasing security camera footage appearing to show him and one of his children breaking into a rural store.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Man who absconded with his three children amid custody dispute was shot dead after firing on police, authorities say. Published On 8 Sep 20258 Sep 2025 A New Zealand father who absconded with his three children after a dispute with his ex-partner nearly four years ago has been killed by police, authorities have said. Tom<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[4559,2173,2217,632,150,1551,2642,1971],"class_list":{"0":"post-19798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-authorities","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-father","11":"tag-killed","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-police","14":"tag-run","15":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n