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Wellington, New Zealand (AP)-A man who escaped the authorities with his three children in the campaign far from New Zealand for almost four years was shot dead on Monday by a police officer, the police said.

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A child was with Tom Phillips at the time of the confrontation and the other two children were found in the forest a few hours after the shooting, in which an officer was seriously injured.

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The disappearance of December 2021 of Phillips and his children _ now about 9, 10 and 11 years old – has confused investigators for years while traversing the densely wooded area where they thought that the family was hiding. The father and the children were not considered far from the isolated rural colony of the northern island of Marokopa where they lived, but the credible observations of them were rare.

Phillips was not officially identified, but the authorities thought he was the man killed.

A police officer was critical and critically injured

A police officer was killed in his head and injured in a critical manner during a confrontation with Phillips after having stolen a agricultural supplies store early on Monday morning, the acting police commissioner in New Zealand, Jill Rogers in the city of Hamilton, in Hamilton. The child with Phillips at the time of the flight was placed in police custody.

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The officer was operated on in a hospital. His injuries were survived, said Rogers, but he was shot “several times with a rifle of high power” and other surgeries were expected.

The other two fugitive children found hours after the shooting

The fate of the other two children of Phillips was unknown immediately after the shooting and the authorities were seriously worrying for them, said Rogers earlier.

About 1 pm after the death of their father, Rogers told journalists that the children had not been found in a campsite remote in an accident forest. The child placed in police custody on Monday had cooperated with the authorities, allowing them to reduce the research area, she said.

The Farm Supplies store targeted on Monday was in a small town in the same sprawling agricultural region of Waikato, south of Auckland, while the colony of around 40 people from which the family disappeared. The case fascinated the New Zealanders and the authorities regularly made unsuccessful calls for information.

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Phillips observations have limited themselves to the surveillance images that showed him crimes that would have committed crimes in the region. He was wanted for an armed bank flight while he was on the run in May 2023, accompanied by one of his children, in which he would have shot a member of the public.

The authorities thought that Phillips had helped

Phillips had no legal guard rights for his children, the SGT senior-detective. Andrew Saunders told journalists in 2024. The authorities said they had not had access to formal education or health care since their disappearance.

The police still believed that Phillips had helped hide his family and some residents of the isolated rural area expressed their support. A reward of $ 80,000 in New Zealand ($ 47,000), important compared to New Zealand standards was offered to obtain information on the place where the family is last June, but it was never paid.

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The family had disappeared before

December 2021 was not the first time that Phillips has sparked major news titles after having disappeared with his children. The family disappeared in September, launching research on land and the sea of ​​three weeks after the Phillips truck was found abandoned on a wild beach near the place where they lived.

The authorities finally ended the search, concluding that the family could have died, before Phillips and the children left the dense forest where they said they were camped. He was accused of having wasted police resources and was to appear in court in January 2022, but weeks before the scheduled date and children have disappeared again.

Police did not immediately search for a search because Phillips, who is experienced outdoors, had told his family that he took the children during another trip. He never returned.

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Research again intensified after several Phillips observations in 2023 in the same region where it had disappeared. He was last seen on a surveillance video in August this year when he stole a grocery store at night, accompanied by one of his children.

The mother of children issues a declaration

The mother of the children published a report on Radio New Zealand on Monday in which she said that she was “deeply relieved” that “the test” of her children ended.

“We have been missing a lot every day for almost four years, and we are impatient to welcome them at home with love and care,” said the woman, who was identified in the New Zealand media only by her first name, Cat.

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