Deputy Phillips was shot and killed while attempting to arrest two suspects.

Deputy Phillips was shot and killed as a member of a posse. The group of four men rode out eight miles north of Knob Knoster to arrest a William Painter and his wife for horse stealing and the murder of Phillips' son and another man. The wife was given a ride by two men but she came back with no word of what had happened. Deputy Phillips and another man knocked at the door and asked for the husband. As Phillips and the other man were waiting, suspect William Painter ran out the door shooting Deputy Phillips point blank in the heart, killing him instantly and escaped.

Deputy Phillips was survived by his wife, Mary, and son, Henry. Interred in Marshall Cemetery, Warrensburg, Johnson County, Missouri.