- By Jane Nixon
Police Commissioner Richard Chambers and Police Minister Mark Mitchell will today, September 9, visit the police constable who was critically injured when shot by Marokopa man Tom Phillips in the early hours of yesterday morning.
The pair will also visit staff at Waikato police station and meet the leadership group there.
It comes after a harrowing day yesterday when Philips, 38, was fatally shot by police after he opened fire on the first officer who arrived at the scene.
It happened just after 3.30am, as Phillips and one of his children were travelling on a quad bike back to their remote campsite near Marokopa after being spotted breaking into a PGG Wrightson store in Piopio.
A report of the burglary came in at about 2.30am and by 3.30am police had laid road spikes on a rural road which they expected him to travel on.
What unfolded yesterday was a situation police had been preparing for. Phillips had been on the run with his three children since December, 2021.
After missing a court date in January, 2022, he had a warrant for his arrest.
Phillips was then charged with aggravated burglary and aggravated wounding and unlawfully possessing a firearm after being linked to a bank robbery in Te Kūiti in May, 2023.
But it would be another two years before police were able to close in on Phillips after a number of other alleged sightings and burglaries.
His other two children were located by police at a remote campsite at about 4.30pm yesterday.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell told the Franklin Times the injured constable, who had surgery yesterday, was “exhausted” and has a “long road to recovery”.
“He’s come through that first surgery very well, but is obviously exhausted.”
Mitchell says the constable, who graduated from Police College in 2022, was the first officer on the scene, but another unit was following in tandem.
“He was shot at close range and took cover inside his vehicle and the other officers were able to deal with Mr Phillips,” Mitchell says.
The officer was then flown to Waikato Hospital by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter in a critical condition.
Deputy Police Commissioner Jill Rogers said yesterday the constable would need “multiple surgeries”. Mitchell praised the staff at Waikato Hospital.
“A huge shout-out and acknowledgement to the staff,” he says.
Following yesterday’s events, several investigations are now under way including a critical incident investigation and the Independent Police Conduct Authority has been notified.
