The Police Commissioner says they're very relieved to have safely recovered the children of Marokopa fugitive Tom Phillips after nearly four years. 

He was shot dead by Police in the early hours of yesterday on a rural Waikato road following a burglary. 

One child was with him, the two others were found in the afternoon at a remote campsite. 

Richard Chambers told Mike Hosking it took them a while to recover the children, but they'd been told there were firearms at the campsite. 

He says the way the situation played out was not something they wanted, but they suspected it could end that way.  

Chambers says the injured officer who was shot multiple times remains in Waikato Hospital. 

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