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

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