A fugitive father who spent nearly four years on the run with his three young children was killed during a police shootout in New Zealand on Monday, bringing an end to one of the country’s most high-profile manhunts. 

Tom Phillips vanished into the Waikato wilderness with his children shortly before Christmas in 2021 following a dispute with their mother, who held sole custody, according to local officials.

Police said Phillips was fatally shot during an attempted burglary at a supply store, where he was accompanied by one of his children. Phillips died at the scene, and his children – Ember, now believed to be 9, Maverick, 10, and Jayda, 12 – were safely recovered and are now in care, according to officials.

"This is an emotional development. To know the children are safe, and now receiving care after nearly four years, is an absolute relief," Acting Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers said in a statement. "We are grateful to see an end to what has been three years of torment for the children’s family."

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Police were alerted around 2:30 a.m. local time Monday to a suspected break-in at a supply store in Piopio, a small town located in the North Island where Phillips was believed to have been hiding out with his children.

When officers spotted two people riding a four-wheeled bike near the scene of the burglary, they suspected Phillips was involved and deployed road spikes on a nearby street to intercept them, according to a police news release.

Phillips opened fire on officers, striking one in the upper body and leaving him seriously injured. Police said they returned fire and killed Phillips. The child with him was unharmed and taken into custody, while the wounded officer was transported to a hospital for treatment.

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Later that afternoon, officers discovered the remaining two children, a boy and a girl, alone at a makeshift camp about one mile from the scene of the shooting. Both were recovered unharmed, officials said.

Authorities had long expressed concerns about the children’s welfare, saying they were being raised in isolation without access to formal schooling or healthcare.  

Despite several reported sightings in the Waikato region over the years, police efforts to locate the family had repeatedly come up empty.

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Police said Phillips already faced charges of aggravated robbery, aggravated wounding and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Officials recovered three guns at the scene of the shooting, including the weapon he used to fire on officers, and found several more at his camp.

Surveillance footage also captured him previously attempting to break into another retail store on Aug. 27.

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The children’s mother, Cat, described the news of Phillips’ death as bringing a "wave of complex emotions," according to local outlet RNZ.

"First and foremost, we are deeply relieved that for our tamariki this ordeal has come to an end," she said, using the Māori word for children. "[The children] have been dearly missed every day for nearly four years, and we are looking forward to welcoming them home with love and care."

"They have endured a long and difficult journey, and we ask for privacy as we help them adjust and reintegrate into a stable and loving environment," she added.

The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), commonly called the "Nation's Report Card," revealed that 12th-graders' scores in math and reading have hit record lows, continuing a years-long decline.

The updated testing data was released Tuesday and reflected results from tests administered between January and March 2024.

As The Washington Post noted, the declines began before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education nationwide and have continued since. Lawmakers had hoped scores would rebound in 2024, but the results underscored ongoing challenges in the U.S. education system.

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The NAEP showed that nearly 45% of high school seniors scored "below basic" in math, the highest share since the current version of the test was introduced.

Reading scores also fell, with nearly one-third of seniors testing below basic — another record. The lowest-performing students recorded an average score of 224, 25 points lower than their peers in 1992.

"Scores for our lowest-performing students are at historic lows, continuing declines that began more than a decade ago. My predecessor warned of this trend and her predecessor warned of this trend as well, and now I am warning you about this trend," said Matthew Soldner, acting director of the Institute of Education Sciences, a research arm of the Department of Education. "These results should galvanize all of us to take concerted, focused action to accelerate student learning."

The report also included eighth-graders' science scores, which dropped below 2019 levels, erasing gains made since the test began in 2009.

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Following the release of the scores on Tuesday, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the results "confirm a devastating trend" which has continued "despite spending billions annually on numerous K-12 programs."

In an appearance Tuesday on "America's Newsroom," McMahon agreed with Fox News host Dana Perino wondering if the situation was a "national emergency." She added that she and President Donald Trump were on a mission to return education funding to the states.

"I do believe it is," McMahon said. "That is just an incredibly devastating trend to look at in our country. We are spending a ton of money on education. We've spent $3 trillion since the Department of Education was established, only to see scores continuing to decline. And that is just a trend we have to stop, and I think the money is not being spent where it needs to be spent, and that's in the states."

While the Trump administration has proposed giving states more control over how they allocate federal education dollars, it has also requested that Congress cut overall spending on those programs. 

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) — which administers the tests — faced layoffs and canceled contracts earlier this year as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) made cuts at the Department of Education.

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Soldner, who works in the Education Department's research and data branch, told reporters on Monday that the cuts did not hinder the office's ability to analyze and report on these results, according to the Washington Post.