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Police Commissioner Richard Chambers and Police Minister Mark Mitchell will today visit the constable who was critically injured, after being shot by 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, September 8, where Philips, 38, was fatally shot after he opened fire on the first officer to apprehend him.
It happened just after 3.30am, as Phillips and one of his children travelled back on a quad bike to his remote campsite near Marokopa, after being spotted robbing a PGG Wrightson 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.
He was a wanted man. After missing a court date in January 2022, he had a warrant for his arrest.
He 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.
Phillips was fatally apprehended yesterday. His other two children were located by police at a remote campsite at about 4.30pm on September 8.
Injured Constable ‘exhausted’
Mitchell told the Franklin Times that 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 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 in a critical condition.
Deputy Police Commissioner Jill Rogers said yesterday that 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 IPCA had been notified.
