The police officer shot by Tom Phillips continues “doing well in his recovery”.
He was the first officer to reach Phillips in the early hours of September 8, when the fugitive Marokopa father was killed in a shootout with police.
Phillips had been attempting to flee police on a quadbike that was spiked and stopped on the side of the road.
When he arrived, the officer was shot with a “high-powered rifle” at close range and was struck in the head and shoulder. A second patrol unit arrived and engaged Phillips, who died at the scene.
The injured officer underwent “numerous surgeries”. On September 26, police said the officer had been discharged from the hospital and was “progressing” with his recovery.
In a statement to 1News, Superintendent Will Loughrin, acting Waikato District Commander, said the officer: “Remains off work while he continues to recover from the injuries sustained.”
Police were continuing to support him and his family.
“We are in regular contact with him and visited him recently, where he is doing well in his recovery,” Loughrin said.
The investigation into the Phillips saga remains ongoing. In October, Detective Superintendent Ross McKay said investigators were making “good progress” and still believed Phillips was being helped by a “small number” of people over the last few years.
Phillips’ death followed a nearly four-year-long manhunt for the fugitive and his three children, who disappeared into the dense Marokopa bush because of a custody dispute.
An injunction, preventing the media from publishing certain details related to the investigation into Phillips and his family, remains in place.
