Tom Phillips update: Fugitive father’s 10-year-old son, Maverick, held rifle as cops arrived at bush hideout

One of Tom Phillips’ children was reportedly armed when police negotiators approached their makeshift bush campsite on Monday.

Sources revealed to the New Zealand Herald that 10-year-old Maverick Phillips was holding a rifle as members of the police special tactics group arrived at the site in Waitomo on New Zealand’s North Island.

“There was a negotiation which commenced with the children, and that proceeded, and they came out,” Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Saunders said.

Police Commissioner Richard Chambers had previously said police negotiators traversed through steep and uneven terrain to locate the children.

According to the outlet, the negotiators had to “persuade” the young boy to “drop the gun”.

Phillips’ eldest daughter, Jayda, who was with her father at the time of the gruesome police shootout, provided police with “crucial” information that allowed them to narrow their search boundary, and eventually find Maverick and nine-year-old Ember.

Police confirmed it was Jayda who alerted them to the presence of guns at the campsite.

“We had information to say a firearm was present, and there was,” Mr Chambers said.

While Jayda did not physically guide police through the bush, she advised police on the best way to talk to her brother and sister.

“We kept her not far away, but far enough away that her safety wasn’t compromised,’ Mr Chambers said.

Police described the hideout as extremely difficult to access.

“It’s a very grim, dimly lit area, surrounded by dense bush,” Det. Sen. Serg. Saunders told reporters.

Photos released by police show a dirty and cramped hideout, containing a tent, a cooktop and a gas bottle.

Authorities do not believe this was the primary location where Phillips and the children had been living since they vanished into the bush in September 2021.

“Based on the way it’s been set up, and other information we’ve received, we don’t believe it’s been the main place they’ve been living for the last four years,” Det. Sen. Serg. Saunders said.

“We believe they’ve moved here a number of months ago.”

All three children are now in the care of Oranga Tamariki, a government department in New Zealand responsible for the well-being of children.

They are yet to be reunited with their mother.