{"id":8511,"date":"2025-09-07T20:41:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T20:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/8511\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T20:41:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T20:41:17","slug":"person-shot-dead-by-police-officer-injured-in-waikato-incident-mayor-suspects-link-to-tom-phillips-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/8511\/","title":{"rendered":"Person shot dead by police, officer injured in Waikato incident; Mayor suspects link to Tom Phillips hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"

A person has been shot dead by police in the western part of Waikato, the Herald understands.<\/p>\n

Police say they are responding to a serious incident in the area.<\/p>\n

A person was interrupted in the middle of a burglary and shot and injured an officer, the Herald understands. The suspect themselves was shot dead by police, sources have told the Herald.<\/p>\n

Another person is believed to be in custody in relation to the incident. <\/p>\n

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A police cordon has been set up on Te Anga Rd, between Waitomo and Marokopa. The road has been closed 1km from where the police operation is currently underway.<\/p>\n

The area is where officers have been hunting for fugitive Marokopa father Tom Phillips but police wouldn\u2019t say if the two incidents are linked.<\/p>\n

\"AA roadblock is in place on Te Anga Rd between Waitomo and Marokopa. Photo \/ Mike Scott<\/p>\n

Waitomo District Council Mayor John Robertson acknowledged there had been a robbery in Piopio last night.<\/p>\n

He said he had been briefed very early this morning by police but he wasn\u2019t able to speak further until officers had addressed media.<\/p>\n

\"TomTom Phillips has been on the run since December 2021, when he disappeared with his three children from their family farm in Marokopa.<\/p>\n

Mayor of the Otorohanga District Max Baxter said he was \u201cgetting the feeling\u201d the incident was related to Phillips but knew nothing more than what police had provided in their update this morning.<\/p>\n

Baxter said he\u2019d been receiving texts and calls for the past several hours and heard \u201call sorts of rumours\u201d about what the operation is related to.<\/p>\n

Minister of Police Mark Mitchell told the Herald he was \u201cgetting updates\u201d on the police operation in the Waikato region but wouldn\u2019t comment further.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has told RNZ he has been briefed about the police operation. <\/p>\n

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He would not give any further comment, leaving it to police to give further details. <\/p>\n

Phillips has been on the run since December 2021, when he disappeared with his three children from their family farm in Marokopa.<\/p>\n

\"MapMap provided by police showing the area of interest in the search for Tom Phillips in the Western Waikato. Photo \/ NZ Police.<\/p>\n

Jayda, Maverick and Ember were 8, 7 and 5 when they went into hiding. They are now 12, 10 and 9.<\/p>\n

Last month, police released fresh footage of Phillips and one of his children being caught on CCTV cameras using a power tool, suspected to be an angle grinder, to break into the Piopio Superette, a general store he previously targeted in 2023.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice release CCTV footage believed to show Marokopa man Tom Phillips and one of his children breaking in to a building in Piopio on Wednesday morning. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Acting Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers is travelling to Waikato today and will speak with media.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Richard Chambers is in Melbourne attending the funeral of Victoria Police members.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFurther details will be provided as they become available,\u201d Chambers said.<\/p>\n

Police said he will return to New Zealand later today.<\/p>\n

Save<\/a>Share this articleCopy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter\/XLinkedInReddit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A person has been shot dead by police in the western part of Waikato, the Herald understands. Police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1558,3595,690,10938,10937,78,671,10933,58,10934,111,43,139,69,10932,5202,4056,10936,675,10117,10935,61,5134,10939,1524,3457],"class_list":["post-8511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-been","tag-by","tag-dead","tag-herald","tag-hunt","tag-in","tag-incident","tag-injured","tag-link","tag-mayor","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-officer","tag-part","tag-person","tag-phillips","tag-police","tag-shot","tag-suspects","tag-to","tag-tom","tag-understands","tag-waikato","tag-western"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}