FUGITIVE DAD SHOT

Man on the run for 4 years with 3 kids dies in a robbery

- ZAHRA KHALIQ

A FUGITIVE who was on the run with his three children in the New Zealand wilderness for nearly four years has been shot and killed by police.

One child was with bank raider Tom Phillips at the time of the showdown and the other two were found in the forest hours after the fatal shootout, in which an officer was shot in the head.

Phillips and his children - now aged about nine, 10 and 12 years old disappeared into the bush in December 2021, amid an apparent custody dispute.

They confounded investigators for years as they scoured the densely forested area where they believed the survivalist and his family was hiding.